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Walter E. Williams, John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics and Chairman of the Economics Department at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia.

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Death is not the stated penalty for disobedience; however, death can occur if the person refuses to submit to government sanctions for his disobedience.

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General Council of Manufacturers, Agriculture, and Commerce, May 6, 1850.

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Translator's note: At the time this was written, Mr. Bastiat knew that he was dying of tuberculosis. Within a year, he was dead.

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Translator's note: The French word used by Mr. Bastiat is spoliation.

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If the special privilege of government protection against competition–a monopoly—were granted only to one group in France, the iron workers, for instance, this act would so obviously be legal plunder that it could not last for long. It is for this reason that we see all the protected trades combined into a common cause. They even organize themselves in such a manner as to appear to represent all persons who labor. Instinctively, they feel that legal plunder is concealed by generalizing it.

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Translator's note: What was thenknown as Paraguay was a much larger area than it is today. It wascolonized by the Jesuits who settled the Indians into villages, andgenerally saved them from further brutalities by the avoidconquerors.

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Translator's note: According to Rousseau, the existence of social man is partial in the sense that be ishenceforth merely a part of society. Knowing himself as such—and thinking and feeling from the point of view of the whole—hethereby becomes moral.

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At this point in theoriginal French text, Mr. Bastiat pauses and speaks thusly to alldo-gooders and would-be rulers of mankind: “Ah, you miserablecreatures! You who think that you are so great! You who judge humanity to be so small! You who wish to reform everything! Why don't you reform yourselves? That task would be sufficientenough.”

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Translator's note: Mr. Bastiat has devoted three other books and several articlesto the development of the ideas contained in the three sentences ofthe following paragraph.