XVII. – DOMINATION THROUGH WORK.

To have less iron because you work less and more iron in spite of working less are situations that are more than different; they are quite opposite to one another.

Frédéric Bastiat
Economic Sophisms Second Series

This last “sophism” of the two series published while the author was still alive is a call to stop using war vocabulary to describe trade relationships. At the time, the usual term was “industrial warfare” and today, the pundits keep talking about “trade wars”. In short, we have learnt absolutely nothing and the terms that he asked to ban from political economy are still used nowadays: “to fight on equal terms, to conquer, to crush, to stifle, to be defeated, invasion, or tribute.”

Clearly, Frédéric Bastiat thought that liberalism was the best way for peoples to get closer to each other and avoid wars – seing the analogy that was made between international trade that is necessary encouraged by liberalism and war must have made him sick.

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