Everything that, directly or indirectly, harms property, undermines confidence or is detrimental to safety, is an obstacle to capital formation and falls down on the shoulders of the working class.

Frédéric Bastiat
Complete Works, Volume 7, pages 385 to 386 (in French)
March 4th, 1848

We shall explore a series of seventeen letters from Frédéric Bastiat to Bernard Domenger, the first of which was written right after the revolution of February 1848 and the implementation of the National Workshops. First he mentions that calm is back to Paris but he worries about the way politics is heading to, when the people is coaxed according to its dreams without taking account of economic reality.

This is the context for today’s quote in which Frédéric Bastiat reveals what the priorities of the government should be, viz. guaranteeing property, re-establish confidence and ensuring safety for people and goods. I note that these three priorities are disregarded on a daily basis in France nowadays, which may well explain the gloomy situation in which the country finds itself 175 years after Frédéric Bastiat passed away. The erratic movements of Donald Trump at the start of year 2025 are also harming property and whatever confidence might be granted to government, which does not bode well for the situation across the Atlantic Ocean either. Concerning the fact that those who suffer the most from such a situation remain the working class, Frédéric Bastiat will explain himself in more details in 1849 when he would write in an article titled Capital: “The proletarian needs to know and be convinced that his interest, his main and crucial interest, is that capital be plentiful around him.”