The Socialist Concept of Liberty

by Frédéric Bastiat

　　But ought not the people be given a little liberty?

　　But Mr. Considerant has assured us that liberty leads inevitablyto monopoly!

　　We understand that liberty means competition. But according toMr. Louis Blanc, competition is a system that ruins the businessmenand exterminates the people. It is for this reason that free peopleare ruined and exterminated in proportion to their degree of freedom.(Possibly Mr. Louis Blanc should observe the results of competitionin, for example, Switzerland, Holland, England, and the UnitedStates.)

　　Mr. Louis Blanc also tells us that competition leads to monopoly.And by the same reasoning, he thus informs us that low prices lead tohigh prices; that competition drives production to destructiveactivity; that competition drains away the sources of purchasingpower; that competition forces an increase in production while, at thesame time, it forces a decrease in consumption. From this, itfollows that free people produce for the sake of not consuming; thatliberty means oppression and madness among the people; and that Mr.Louis Blanc absolutely must attend to it.