OK, I got all excited and did it. It’s 1,728 words. I read it aloud in 9:06 (tried to do my best narration voice). If someone wants to narrate this, I think it would kick ass. You could just make a photo montage of the Capitol building, protesters, the Fed, money being printed, and so on and slap the audio onto it. As always, feel free to provide your critiques. The closing paragraph is entirely my own and there are a smattering of sentences here and there that I inserted but this is mostly just a cut-down and slighly re-worded version of Bastiat. He’s my hero.
What is Government?
By Frederic Bastiat, 1848
Updated for Occupy Wall Street, 2011
Someone should offer a prize for a simple and accurate definition of the word “government” – it would be a great service to society!
What, exactly, is the government? What is it capable of doing? What should it do? All we know for sure is that it is a mysterious entity that we all expect to fix the problems in society. It must be the most solicited, tormented, overwhelmed, admired, accused and provoked of any entity in the world.
Whatever the government is, who should it listen to? The left wants one thing, the right wants another, the country is in a mess and the government does not know who to listen to, or where to turn. A hundred thousand protesters cry out all at once:
“Organize labor unions.”
“End the tyranny of capital.”
“Perform experiments in space and advance medical knowledge.”
“Repair and expand the infrastructure.”
“Instruct the youth.”
“Assist the elderly.”
“Lend money without interest to all who wish to borrow.”
“Free oppressed people everywhere in the world.”
“Encourage the arts, and provide musicians, painters, and architects.”
“Control the borders and at the same time send troops everywhere in the world.”
“Discover the truth, and teach us how to reason. Government should enlighten, develop, extend, and uplift the soul of the people.”
Faced with so many demands, the government asks us to be patient. They will do what they can to satisfy us, but they must have resources. The administration has been preparing plans for some new taxes which are not at all oppressive and will not affect anyone below $250,000.
Now that the country has again and again changed administrations, because they have failed to satisfy our demands, I ask you to consider that, perhaps, our demands from the government are contradictory. I know this is an outrageous proposition. But if I am wrong, I would willingly retract it.
I would be pleased if someone had really discovered an inexhaustible entity, calling itself “the government”, which has bread for all mouths, work for all hands, credit for all ventures, medicine for all sufferings, advice for all problems, courage for all doubts, truth for all minds; an entity which can provide for all of our needs, satisfy our curiosity, correct our errors, repair our faults, and exempt us from the need to exercise prudence, judgment, organization, frugality, self-control, and diligence.
How could I possibly not desire to see such a discovery made? The more I think about it, the more I see that nothing could be more desirable. This is why I would like it simply and accurately defined – perhaps by offering a prize to the first discoverer of such a marvelous entity. Clearly, no one has yet discovered it since, up to this time, each party keeps being overturned by the people, precisely because it has not fulfilled their contradictory demands.
There is an inclination which exists in all of us to divide our lives into two pieces, throwing the trouble onto others, and keeping the benefits for ourselves. Of course, this is the motivation of slavery and theft, however they manifest themselves. We recognize slavery and theft as wrong if they are presented nakedly as such. But the political solution is consistent with the idea that gave birth to these evils.
Nowadays, the oppressor no longer acts directly and with his own hands against the victim. Our conscience has become too sensitive for that. The oppressor and his victim are still present but there is a middle-man between them, which is the government – the law itself.
What better way to silence our conscience? We each apply to the government for help. "Look how much I have to work and yet how little I have. In order to fix this imbalance, I would like to take a part of the possession of others, but only so much as I need and only from those much more fortunate than I am. But since stealing is dangerous, can you help me with this? Can’t you get me a decent place to live? I’m a small businessman, can’t you restrict my competitors? I’m a student, can’t you lend me money at zero percent interest? Can’t you guarantee my retirement? Can’t you guarantee that my medical bills will all be paid? With the help of the government, I can achieve what I want with a clean conscience since it has all been done legally. I will have all the advantages of theft, without the risk or shame!”
Until I can obtain another definition of the word “government” I am going to give it my own. Maybe it will win the prize. Here it is:
“Government is the great fiction by which everyone attempts to live at the expense of everyone else.”
As it has always been, everyone is, more or less, profiting from work done by others. But today, no one would dare say such a thing. We even hide the truth from ourselves.
Every lobby, racial or other minority group and pressure group is always applying to the government. They say, “You can take from the public legally and honestly, so take on our behalf, and then spend the money in our district and buy our products.” The government is perfectly happy to follow this diabolical advice because the government is composed of administrators and elected officials who are also human beings. Like anyone else, government employees are tempted by the opportunity to increase their own wealth and influence. The government is quick to perceive the advantages it derives from the duties entrusted to it by the public. The government will happily take as much as it can so that a large share will remain for itself. It will not stop until it has consumed a disastrous portion of the public’s wealth.
Our contradictory requests place the government in a dilemma. If it refuses to grant our requests, it is accused of weakness, ill-will, and incapacity. If it tries to grant them, it is obliged to load us with new taxes, debt and to print more money. It ends up doing more harm than good and this results in increased public disapproval and unrest. Each election cycle we “throw the bums out” only to see them replaced by new faces that disappoint us yet again.
The public has two hopes and the government makes two promises: many benefits and no new taxes, debt or money printing. These hopes and promises are contradictory and can never be realized. But is this not the final cause of all the protests? The government makes promises which are impossible to perform and the public has expectations which can never be fulfilled.
Between the government and the people, two classes of men interpose themselves: the ambitious and the idealists. The protests and popular unrest give them their cue. It would be bad enough if these opportunists only said, “The authorities are deceiving you; if we were in their place, we would load you with benefits, exempt you from taxes, rein in inflation and pay down the debt.” But no sooner are they in office than they are called upon to fulfill their promises. “Give us jobs, food, rent, credit lines, education, and more money,” say the people; “and deliver us, as you promised, from the demands of the revenuer by taxing only those who have more money than us.”
The new politicians are no less embarrassed than the ones we just voted out. They soon find that it is much easier to make promises than to keep them. They try to gain time. At first, they make a few timid attempts. On the one hand, they increase student loan subsidies; on the other hand, they cut some taxes on the lower income brackets. But the contradiction is constantly confronting them. If they try to be philanthropic, they must attend to the budget through taxes, debt or inflation; if they try to hold down taxes, debt and inflation, they must abstain from being philanthropic.
These two promises are forever clashing with each other and it cannot be any other way. They can borrow; this is an attempt to do a little good now but at the expense of a great deal of harm in future. They can print money but this just causes inflation which they themselves admit is just another tax. When all options have been exhausted, they will face reduced credit ratings; this raises the specter of bankruptcy while interest payments rise and public credit dries up.
At this point, what can be done? Why, then, the government will take bold and decisive measures. It will unite all its forces in order to maintain itself. It will smother opinion, resort to arbitrary measures, ridicule its former maxims and declare that it is impossible to do the right thing except at the risk of being unpopular. In short, it proclaims itself governmental. And it is here that other candidates for popularity are waiting for it. They proclaim the same illusion to the public, achieve the same power, fail to achieve the same success, and soon meet the same end.
It is not enough to make signs and issue demands to the government. Such behavior is either pathetic and beggar-like, on the one hand, or lawless and violent, on the other hand. Instead, we need to truly absorb the meaning of the phrase “We are the 99%.” For every 99 of us, there is just one crook or crony in big business and the corrupt halls of government power. We are the 99% means that things only got this bad because we let it get this bad. We are the 99% means we need to take responsibility for this mess and change our minds about what we will allow the government and its big business cronies and lobbyists to get away with. No more printing money without our permission. No more public debt without our say-so. No new taxes that we don’t approve. No more wars without our permission. No more bailouts without our approval. No new benefits or programs that we didn’t ask for until you figure out how to pay for it within the budget we’ve already given you. The government is supposed to serve the people, not the other way around. It’s time we remind the 1% who’s boss.
Clayton -
