One amazing source of good and significant ideas as it is a very ancient yet prescient book.

We find a passionate, persistent, and convincing reminder of the goal of law and the proper use of government in The Law. It may have been penned back in the early 19th century, but its realities speak to us now in the 21st century.

His ideas would be beneficial to all of us, even elected leaders. Bastiat argued that the greatest single menace to liberty is government. He also exhorts everyone to understand that power does not equate to morality. That is to say, just legalising a certain action does not change that undertaking’s ethically problematic character. An act stealing from another may still be immoral, whatever ink on paper may suggest.

Here are a few instances. He decries the government’s proclivity for “plunder”: “See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law favours one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime.” What Bastiat called legalised looting we call progressive taxes, essential fee hikes, and much-needed regulation.

Bastiat reminds us that the government’s widespread and invasive practices of stealing from one person’s work to give to another are not justified by good intentions. He calls such state measures “false philanthropy.” He contends that the unforeseen effects of such social engineering cannot be justified and often can be substantially worse than the intended good.

Bastiat’s stance is that wealth redistribution is not the same thing as wealth creation and that the government’s frequent and unrelenting incursions into the market can actually decrease the ability of market players to efficiently generate riches from which we all benefit.

“The present-day delusion is an attempt to enrich everyone at the expense of everyone else,” Bastiat contends. His thesis is that risk-takers, entrepreneurs, and company owners who undertake endeavours to provide services and goods to suit the needs of others cannot be depended on to continue doing what they do if they are not permitted to gain from their labours. Both incentives and disincentives exist. Regardless of objectives, decision-makers must consider the repercussions of their actions.

Such legalised “plunder,” Bastiat further points out, will tend to invite people to take advantage of the laws to their own benefit and the detriment of the public welfare: “Under the pretence of organisation, regulation, protection, or encouragement, the law takes property from one person and gives it to another; the law takes the wealth of all and gives it to a few, whether farmers, manufacturers, shipowners, artists, or comedians. Under these circumstances, then undoubtedly every class will desire to know the law, and logically so.”

The purpose of the law, writes this man who was well aware of the anarchy of the French Revolution, should be to “protect the free exercise of these rights” and elsewhere in the book he makes clear that he shares the ideal that humankind is endowed with unalienable rights, including life, liberty, and property.

“It is not true that the function of law is to regulate our consciences, our ideas, our wills, our education, our opinions, our work, our trade, our talents, or our pleasures. The role of law is to preserve the free exercise of these rights, and to prohibit any individual from interfering with the free exercise of these same rights by any other person.”

The conclusion is clear: politicians must exercise caution and deliberate thought when they enact laws, govern residents, and add red tape to their lives. Whether it is the United States Congress or the Hawaii State Legislature, we cannot defend the use of lawmaking authority just because our objectives are good and honourable. We must respect the lives, liberty, and property of our citizens, to whom we owe the privilege of service and to whom we are ultimately answerable.

One may ask how relevant a book two hundred years old is to us here in Hawaii today. But truth is always relevant. I offer this book to all individuals, including and possibly especially my legislative colleagues, for their serious study. One of the finest books I have ever read in my life.