What! Is this the way the question of sustenance is dealt with?

Frédéric Bastiat
Complete Works, Volume 2, pages 110 and 111 (in French)
April 18th, 1847

Here is an extremely short satire in which Frédéric Bastiat shows on one hand the vicious circle into which an economy can collapse when there is a shortage (here, the price increase on food leads to a decrease in other consumptions which leads to a decrease in salaries, thus compounding the pain of the initial price increase). It is obvious that, if an economic policy needs to be conducted, its objective should be to escape the vicious circle in order to enter a virtuous circle (this is what is behind the theory supporting a Keynesian stimulus for example).

However, today’s quote follows the surprise of a sailor discovering the situation and to whom the positions of the different newspapers that differ from their usual positions, are exposed. The reason is that the motives of the ones or the others do not consist in dealing with the shortages but to act according to political interests that have nothing to do with the topic (the wedding of a prince here).

Frédéric Bastiat exposes here once more the absence of integrity of the political class and their supporters in the press who do not care about truth but are seeking to increase their own powers instead.