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Economics Discussion Material
Economic Sophisms

Prof. Williams said something in class reminded me of a short commentary piece by Bastiat. Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850) was a French economist who used satire to reveal the foolishness of various ideas and policies. To wit, the link below takes you to a open letter Bastiat wrote to French politicians seeking trade protections. It seems that candlemakers faced unfair competition from the sun (which made light available for free), and thus were deserving of government protection:

The full piece is here, but here is a selection:


 * We are suffering from the ruinous competition of a foreign rival who apparently works under conditions so far superior to our own for the production of light that he is flooding the domestic market with it at an incredibly low price… We ask you to be so good as to pass a law requiring the closing of all windows, dormers, skylights, inside and outside shutters, curtains, casements, bull's-eyes, deadlights, and blinds—in short, all openings, holes, chinks, and fissures through which the light of the sun is wont to enter houses, to the detriment of the fair industries with which, we are proud to say, we have endowed the country, a country that cannot, without betraying ingratitude, abandon us today to so unequal a combat.:


 * [I]f you shut off as much as possible all access to natural light, and thereby create a need for artificial light, what industry in France will not ultimately be encouraged?:

   

P.S. Our very own Prof. Williams himself wrote the introduction to an edition of another of Bastiat’s famous works, The Law; you can read his comments here.