Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we … - Frédéric Bastiat

Under the influence of ignorance and custom, the day's pay of a country labourer will remain for a long time at a franc, while the saleable price of all the articles of consumption around him will be rising. He will sink into destitution without being able to discover the cause. In short, since you wish me to finish, I must beg you, before we separate, to fix your whole attention upon this essential point: — When once false money (under whatever form it may take) is put into circulation, depreciation will ensue, and manifest itself by the universal rise of every thing which is capable of being sold. But this rise in prices is not instantaneous and equal for all things. Sharp men, brokers, and men of business, will not suffer by it; for it is their trade to watch the fluctuations of prices, to observe the cause, and even to speculate upon it. But little tradesmen, countrymen, and workmen, will bear the whole weight of it. The rich man is not any the richer for it, but the poor man becomes poorer by it. Therefore, expedients of this kind have the effect of increasing the distance which separates wealth from poverty,

¡Desgraciadas, tres veces desgraciadas las naciones en las cuales sea este último pensamiento el que predomine en las masas en el momento en que a su vez se apoderen de la facultad de legislar!

"If you suggest a doubt as to the morality of these institutions, it is said directly — "You are a dangerous innovator, a utopian, a theorist, a despiser of the laws; you would shake the basis upon which society rests.