Economic Harmonies

True and False Solidarity

Bastiat Economic Thought

True and False Solidarity

Frédéric Bastiat, in his famous pamphlet "The Law," denounces the perversion of law that consists in legalizing, under the name of "solidarity," what must indeed be called plunder. Indeed, there is a contradiction in wanting to impose fraternity through law, which we would today call "social justice" or solidarity.

Morality is defined as voluntary behavior. When an individual is forced to give something they do not want to give, they are always the victim of theft.

Indeed, when a donation is made mandatory by law, it is no longer a matter of moral choice. The moral attitude of giving is replaced by the claim "to rights," which are claims on the labor of others. False solidarity is the call to live at the expense of others.

This is what Bastiat calls "the sophism of legal fraternity." Let's quote him on this point:

Fraternity is spontaneous, or it is not. To decree it is to destroy it.

And again:

Governments only ever exercise an action that is sanctioned by Force. Now, it is permissible to force someone to be just, not to force them to be charitable. The Law, when it seeks to do by force what morality achieves through persuasion, far from rising to the realm of Charity, falls into the domain of Plunder.
Yet this perversion of law has a name, it is socialism, that is, the ideology of forced redistribution of wealth by the State. Socialism, according to Bastiat, is characterized by the ideology of legal plunder. However, the cunning of this ideology lies in its ability to mask its violence through the misuse of language, specifically in the form of calls to solidarity or fraternity.

Mutual Aid
Society of GUISY
1899

However, according to Bastiat, there is an alternative to mandatory state solidarity: "mutual aid society", the mutual and spontaneous assistance of men among themselves, thanks to mutual aid societies. However, he also foresaw that the State would eventually seize these mutuals to create a unique and centralized body, thereby encouraging spending and waste.

In a pamphlet named "Justice and Fraternity", Bastiat also explores the idea of a simplified and fair tax system for financing collective needs (police, justice, army): incomes and profits would be subject to a single and proportional tax rate. This is what is known today as the "Flat Tax".

Foundations –
added value
for society SwissFoundations

Indeed, intra-family solidarity, local solidarity, or organized philanthropy are much more developed in countries that have a light tax system and a relatively high degree of economic freedom, such as Switzerland and the United States, whereas it is largely stifled in countries where the State has largely replaced individual responsibility, like France or Germany.

It is often fashionable to lament the "selfishness" that would prevail in liberal societies. But the exact opposite is true. When a society is burdened with taxes and individuals no longer own their property, they are not encouraged to give but rather to withdraw into themselves.

In reality, a free civil society does not rest on selfishness: the market economy operates on the basis of service to one's neighbor and reciprocity. One can only serve one's own interest by serving the interest of another, by offering the other a counterpart that leads to a mutually beneficial exchange. In other words, it is a voluntary exchange that creates true solidarity.

Forced redistribution has nothing to do with authentic human solidarity, which is of a private or voluntary nature and which is seen within families or between members of an association.

It is thus on the role of the law that Bastiat here opposes the socialists. He writes: Law can compel a man to be just, but it cannot force him to be devoted. The false solidarity of socialists eliminates devotion in favor of pure state coercion, which forms the basis of totalitarianism.

Quiz

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1/5

According to Bastiat, where can one find a form of authentic and organized solidarity?