When I see labor growing angry with capital, I seem to be seeing starvation rejecting food.

Frédéric Bastiat
Pamphlets
Fourth Letter

In this fourth letter, Frédéric Bastiat shows us how Property and Liberty are two concepts that are fundamentally tied together. He analyses one after the other what he believes to be the axioms of the various political sides in order to show that this point is actually shared by every single one of them.

This way of showing us that property is a universal concept leads us to explore the views of the  Economists, the Egalitarians, the Saint-Simonists, the Socialists and the Communists. It is while describing shortly what capital is that he takes the opportunity to warn those who are constantly complaining about capitla that they are the ones for whom it is most important that capital can expand in order to help them out of poverty and misery through improved productivity. Property rights preclude the development of capital. The fact that property is legitimate is good news for people to get out of misery.

Other quotes from Property and Plunder:
Part 1 of 5 – Part 2 of 5 – Part 3 of 5 – Part 5 of 5