Audio Pages \ The Law, by Frédéric Bastiat

How is it that the law enforcer itself does not have to keep the law? How is it that the law permits the state to lawfully engage in actions which, if undertaken by individuals, would land them in jail? These are among the most intriguing issues in political and economic philosophy. More specifically, the problem of law that itself violates law is an insurmountable conundrum of all statist philosophies. Bastiat’s essay here is timeless because it applies whenever and wherever the state assumes unto itself different rules and different laws from that by which it expects other people to live. Ezra Taft Benson’s “The Proper Role of Government” takes many of its principles from this timeless classic.