Government or Nothing?

Money given voluntarily by individuals tends to be spent far more efficiently, responsibly, and with more transparency, than money taken by government in the form of taxes.

Frédéric Bastiat’s The Law—a fiery little pamphlet first published in 1850—should be required reading before anyone rage-tweets about public policy matters.

It’s not required, and it shows.

Most Americans venting into the social media void couldn’t pick Bastiat out of a lineup. They don’t know who Bastiat was; they likely have never heard of him.

Claude-Frédéric Bastiat (1801 – 1850) was a French economist and writer who developed the economic concept of opportunity cost and introduced the parable of the broken window. He was described as "the most brilliant economic journalist who ever lived" by economic theorist Joseph Schumpeter.

Bastiat is not trending on TikTok, after all. Taylor Swift isn’t name-dropping him in breakup anthems. Drake and Kendrick aren’t rap-feuding over his legacy. Why? Because Bastiat dared to expose the progressive playbook: hijacking laws that should protect individual liberty and private property and transforming them into what he called legalized plunder.

Progressives slap feel-good labels on their power grabs: War on Poverty! War on Drugs! Free health care! Affordable housing! Save the Planet! Cure Cancer! But let’s be honest—these laws aren’t about results. They never achieve the improvements promised by politicos.

They’re about control. Your money becomes their slush fund, siphoned off by political elites.

The grift isn’t a bug; it’s the feature. It’s an excuse to take what is yours, backed by the force of law.