17 P RIVATE AND PUBLIC SERVICES S ervices are exchanged for services. The equivalence of serv- ices results from voluntary exchange, and the free bargaining and discussion that precede it. In other words, each service rendered to society is worth as much as any other service of which it constitutes the equivalent, provided supply and demand are in all respects perfectly free. It is in vain to carp and refine upon it; it is impossible to con- ceive the idea of value without associating with it the idea of lib- erty. When the equivalence of services is not impaired by violence, restriction, or fraud, we may pronounce that justice prevails. I do not mean to say that the human race will then have reached the extreme limit of improvement, for liberty does not exclude the errors of individual appreciations—man is frequently the dupe of his judgments and passions; nor are his desires always arranged in the most rational order. We have seen that the value of a service may be appreciated without there being any reason- able proportion between its value and its utility; and this arises 481 Harmonies 2 Chap Seventeen.qxd 7/6/2007 11:35 AM Page 481 from our giving certain desires precedence over others. It is the progress of intelligence, of good sense, and of manners that estab- lishes this fair and just proportion by putting each service, if I may so express myself, in its right moral place. A frivolous object, a puerile show, an immoral pleasure, may have much value in one country and may be despised or repudiated in another. The equiv- alence of services, then, is a different thing from a just apprecia- tion of their utility. But still, as regards this, it is liberty and the sense of responsibility which correct and improve our tastes, our desires, our satisfactions, and our appreciations. In all countries of the world, there exists one class of services, which, as regards the manner in which they are distributed and remunerated, accomplishes an evolution quite different from that of private or free services. I allude to public services. When a want assumes a character so universal and so uniform that one can describe it as a public want, it may be convenient for those people who form part of the same agglomeration (be it dis- trict, province, or country) to provide for the satisfaction of that want by collective action, or a collective delegation of power. In that case, they name functionaries whose duty it is to render to the community and distribute among them the service in ques- tion, and whose remuneration they provide for by a contribution that is, at least in principle, proportionate to the means of each member of the society. In reality, the primordial elements of the social economy are not necessarily impaired or set aside by this peculiar form of exchange—above all, when the consent of all parties is assumed. It still resolves itself into a transmission of efforts, a transmission of services. These functionaries labor to satisfy the wants of the taxpayers, and the taxpayers labor to satisfy the wants of the functionaries. The relative value of their reciprocal services is determined by a method that we shall have afterwards to exam- ine; but the essential principles of the exchange, speaking in the abstract at least, remain intact. Those authors, then, are wrong who, influenced by their dis- like of unjust and oppressive taxes, regard as lost all values 482 The Bastiat Collection Harmonies 2 Chap Seventeen.qxd 7/6/2007 11:35 AM Page 482 devoted to the public service. 1 This unqualified condemnation will not bear examination. In so far as loss or gain is concerned, the public service, scientifically considered, differs in nothing from private service. Whether I protect my field myself, or pay a man for protecting it, or pay the State for causing it to be pro- tected, there is always a sacrifice with a corresponding benefit. In both ways, no doubt, I lose this amount of labor, but I gain secu- rity. It is not a loss, but an exchange. Will it be said that I give a material object, and receive in return a thing without body or form? This is just to fall back upon the erroneous theory of value. As long as we attribute value to matter, not to services, we must regard every public service as being without value, or lost. Afterwards, when we begin to shift about between what is true and what is false on the subject of value, we shift about between what is true and what is false on the subject of taxation. If taxation is not necessarily a loss, still less is it necessarily spoliation. 2 No doubt, in modern societies, spoliation by means Harmonies of Political Economy—Book Two 483 1 “The moment this value is handed over by the taxpayer, it is lost to him; the moment it is consumed by the Government, it is lost to everybody, and does not return to society.” J.B. Say, Traite d’ Economie Politique, p. iii, chap. 9. Unquestionably; but society gains in return the service that is rendered to it—security, for example. Moreover, Say returns to the correct doctrine almost immediately afterwards, when he says, “To levy a tax is do a wrong to society—a wrong which is compensated by no advantage, when no serv- ice is rendered to society in exchange.” Ibid. 2 “Public contributions, even when they are consented to by the nation, are a violation of property, seeing they can be levied only on values which have been produced by the land, capital, and industry of individuals. Thus, whenever they exceed the amount indispensable for the preservation of society, we must regard them as spoliation.” Ibid. Here again, the subsequent qualification corrects the absolute judgment previously pronounced. The doctrine that services are exchanged for serv- ices simplifies much both the problem and its solution. Harmonies 2 Chap Seventeen.qxd 7/6/2007 11:35 AM Page 483 of taxation is perpetrated on a great scale. We shall afterwards see that it is one of the most active of those causes which disturb the equivalence of services and the harmony of interests. But the best way of combating and eradicating the abuses of taxation, is to steer clear of that exaggeration that would represent all taxation as being essentially and in itself, spoliation. Thus, considered in themselves, in their own nature, in their normal state, and apart from abuses, public services, like private services, resolve themselves into pure exchanges. But the modes in which, in these two forms of exchange, serv- ices are compared, bargained for, and transmitted, the modes in which they are brought to an equilibrium or equivalence, and in which their relative value is manifested, are so different in them- selves and in their effects that the reader will bear with me if I dwell at some length on this difficult subject, one of the most interesting that can be presented to the consideration of the econ- omist and the statesman. It is here, in truth, that we have the con- necting link between politics and social economy. It is here that we discover the origin and tendency of the most fatal error that has ever infected the science, the error of confounding society with Government: society being the grand whole, which includes both private and public services, and Government, the fraction that includes public services alone. Unfortunately, when, by following the teaching of Rousseau, and his apt scholars the French republicans, we employ indiscrim- inately the words Government and Society, we pronounce implic- itly, beforehand and without examination, that the State can and ought to absorb private exertion altogether, along with individual liberty and responsibility. We conclude that all private services ought to be converted into public services. We conclude that the social order is a conventional and contingent fact that owes its existence to the law. We pronounce the law-giver omnipotent, and mankind powerless, as having forfeited its rights. In fact, we see public services, or governmental action, extended or restrained according to circumstances of time and place, from the Communism of Sparta or the Missions of 484 The Bastiat Collection Harmonies 2 Chap Seventeen.qxd 7/6/2007 11:35 AM Page 484 Paraguay, to the individualism of the United States and the cen- tralization of France. The question that presents itself on the threshold of Politics, as a science, then, is this: What are the services that should remain in the domain of pri- vate activity? And what are the services that should fall within that of public or collective activity? The problem, then, is this: In the great circle called society, to trace accurately the inscribed circle called government. It is evident that this problem belongs to Political Economy, since it implies the comparative examination of two very differ- ent forms of exchange. This problem once solved, there remains another, namely, what is the best organization of public services? This last belongs to pure Politics, and we shall not enter upon it. Let us examine, then, first of all, the essential differences by which public and private services are characterized, which is a preliminary inquiry necessary to enable us to fix accurately the line that should divide them. The whole of the preceding portion of this work has been devoted to exhibit the evolution of private services. We have had a glimpse of it in this formal or tacit proposition: Do this for me, and I shall do that for you; which implies, whether as regards what we give away or what we receive, a double and reciprocal consent. We can form no correct notion, then, of barter, exchange, appreciation, or value apart from the consideration of liberty, nor of liberty apart from responsibility. In having recourse to exchange, each party consults, on his own responsibility, his wants, his tastes, his desires, his faculties, his affections, his con- venience, his entire situation; and we have nowhere denied that to the exercise of free will is attached the possibility of error, the possibility of a foolish and irrational choice. The error belongs not to exchange, but to human imperfection; and the remedy can only reside in responsibility itself (that is to say, in liberty), seeing that liberty is the source of all experience. To establish restraint in Harmonies of Political Economy—Book Two 485 Harmonies 2 Chap Seventeen.qxd 7/6/2007 11:35 AM Page 485 the business of exchange, to destroy free will under the pretext that man may err would be no improvement unless it were first proved to us that the agent who organizes the restraint does not himself participate in the imperfection of our nature, and is sub- ject neither to the passions nor to the errors of other men. On the contrary, is it not evident that this would be not only to displace responsibility but to annihilate it, at least as regards all that is valuable in its remunerative, retributive, experimental, corrective, and consequently, progressive character? Again, we have seen that free exchanges, or services voluntarily rendered and received, are, under the action of competition, continually extending the coop- eration of gratuitous forces, as compared with that of onerous forces, the domain of community as compared with the domain of property, and thus we have come to recognize in liberty that power which promotes progressive equality, or social harmony. We have no need to describe the form that exchanges assume when thus left free. Restraint takes a thousand shapes; liberty has but one. I repeat once more, that the free and voluntary transmis- sion of private services is defined by the simple words: “Give me this, and I will give you that; do this for me, and I shall do that for you”—Do ut des; facio ut facias. 3 The same thing does not hold with reference to the exchange of public services. Here constraint is to a certain extent inevitable, and we encounter an infinite number of different forms, from absolute despotism, down to the universal and direct intervention of all the citizens. Although this ideal order of things has never been anywhere actually realized, and perhaps may never be so, except in a very elusory shape, we may nevertheless assume its existence. What is the object of our inquiry? We are seeking to discover the modifi- cations that services undergo when they enter the public domain; and for the purposes of science we must discard the consideration of individual and local acts of violence, and regard the public 486 The Bastiat Collection 3 Civil law terms. See part 1. Harmonies 2 Chap Seventeen.qxd 7/6/2007 11:35 AM Page 486 service simply as such, and as existing under the most legitimate circumstances. In a word, we must investigate the transformation it undergoes from the single circumstance of its having become public, apart from the causes that have made it so, and of the abuses that may mingle with the means of execution. The process is this: The citizens name representatives. These representatives meet, and decide by a majority that a certain class of wants—the want of education, for example—can no longer be supplied by free exertions and free exchanges made by the citizens them- selves, and they decree that education shall be provided by func- tionaries specially delegated and entrusted with the work of instruction. So much for the service rendered. As regards the serv- ices received, as the State has secured the time and abilities of these new functionaries for the benefit of the citizens, it must also take from the citizens a part of their means for the benefit of the functionaries. This is effected by an assessment or general contri- bution. In all civilized communities such contributions are paid in money. It is scarcely necessary to say that behind this money there is labor. In reality, it is a payment in kind. In reality, the citizens work for the functionaries, and the functionaries work for the cit- izens, just as in free and private transactions the transactors work for one another. We set down this observation here, in order to elude a very widely spread sophism that springs from the consideration of money. We hear it frequently said that money received by public functionaries falls back like refreshing rain on the citizens. And we are led to infer that this rain is a second benefit added to that which results from the service. Reasoning in this way, people have come to justify the existence of the most parasitical functions. They do not consider that if this service had remained in the domain of private activity, the money (which, in place of going to the treasury, and from the treasury to the functionaries) would have gone directly to men who voluntarily undertook the duty, and in the same way would have fallen back like rain upon the Harmonies of Political Economy—Book Two 487 Harmonies 2 Chap Seventeen.qxd 7/6/2007 11:35 AM Page 487 masses. This sophism will not stand examination when we extend our regards beyond the mere circulation of money and see that at the bottom it is labor exchanged for labor, services for services. In public life, it may happen that functionaries receive services with- out rendering any in return; and then there is a loss entailed on the taxpayer, however we may delude ourselves with reference to this circulation of specie. Be this as it may, let us resume our analysis: We have here, then, an exchange under a new form. Exchange includes two terms—to give, and to receive. Let us inquire then how this transaction, which from being private has become pub- lic, is affected in the double point of view of services rendered and services received. In the first place, it is proved beyond doubt that public serv- ices always, or nearly always, extinguish, in law or in fact, private services of the same nature. The State, when it undertakes a serv- ice, generally takes care to decree that no other body shall render it, more especially if one of its objects be to derive a revenue from it. Witness the cases of postage, tobacco, gunpowder, etc. If the State did not take this precaution, the result would be the same. What manufacturer would engage to render to the public a serv- ice which the State renders for nothing? We scarcely meet with anyone who seeks a livelihood by teaching law or medicine pri- vately, by the formation of highways, by rearing thorough-bred horses, by founding schools of arts and design, by clearing lands in Algeria, by establishing museums, etc. And the reason is this, that the public will not go to purchase what the State gives it for nothing. As Mr. de Cormenin has said, the trade of the shoemak- ers would soon be put an end to, even were it declared inviolable by the first article of the constitution, if Government took it into its head to furnish shoes to everybody gratuitously. In truth, in the word gratuitous as applied to public services, there lurks the grossest and most puerile of sophisms. For my own part, I wonder at the extreme gullibility of the public in allowing itself to be taken in with this word. What! it is said, do you not wish gratuitous education? gratuitous studs? 488 The Bastiat Collection Harmonies 2 Chap Seventeen.qxd 7/6/2007 11:35 AM Page 488 Certainly I wish them, and I should also wish to have gratu- itous food and gratuitous lodging—if it were possible. But there is nothing really gratuitous but what costs nothing to anyone. Now public services cost something to everybody; and it is just because everybody has paid for them beforehand that they no longer cost anything to the man who receives the benefit. The man who has paid his share of the general contribution will take good care not to pay for the service a second time by calling in the aid of private industry. Public service is thus substituted for private service. It adds nothing either to the general labor of the nation or to its wealth. It accomplishes by means of functionaries what would have been effected by private industry. The question, then, is, Which of these arrangements entails the greatest amount of inconvenience? and the solution of that question is the object of the present chap- ter. The moment the satisfaction of a want becomes the subject of a public service, it is withdrawn, to a great extent, from the domain of individual liberty and responsibility. The individual is no longer free to procure that satisfaction in his own way, to pur- chase what he chooses and when he chooses, consulting only his own situation and resources, his means, and his moral apprecia- tions, nor can he any longer exercise his discretion in regard to the order in which he may judge it reasonable to provide for his various wants. Whether he will or not, his wants are now supplied by the public, and he obtains from society, not that measure of service he judges useful, as he did in the case of private services, but the amount of service the Government thinks it proper to fur- nish, whatever be its quantity and quality. Perhaps he is in want of bread to satisfy his hunger, and part of the bread of which he has such urgent need is withheld from him in order to furnish him with education or with theatrical entertainments, which he does not want. He ceases to exercise free control over the satisfaction of his own wants, and having no longer any feeling of responsi- bility, he no longer exerts his intelligence. Foresight has become as useless to him as experience. He is less his own master; he is Harmonies of Political Economy—Book Two 489 Harmonies 2 Chap Seventeen.qxd 7/6/2007 11:35 AM Page 489 deprived, to some extent, of free will, he is less progressive, he is less a man. Not only does he no longer judge for himself in a par- ticular case; he has got out of the habit of judging for himself in any case. The moral torpor which thus gains upon him gains, for the same reason, on all his fellow-citizens, and in this way we have seen whole nations abandon themselves to a fatal inaction. 4 As long as a certain class of wants and of corresponding satis- factions remains in the domain of liberty, each, in so far as this class is concerned, lays down a rule for himself, which he can modify at pleasure. This would seem to be both natural and fair, seeing that no two men find themselves in exactly the same situ- ation; nor is there any one man whose circumstances do not vary from day to day. In this way, all the human faculties remain in exercise, comparison, judgment, foresight. In this way, too, every good and judicious resolution brings its recompense and every error its chastisement; and experience, that rude substitute for 490 The Bastiat Collection 4 The effects of such a transformation are strikingly exemplified in an instance given by Mr. d’Hautpoul, the Minister of War: “Each soldier,” he says, “receives 16 centimes a day for his maintenance. The Government takes these 16 centimes, and undertakes to support him. The consequence is that all have the same rations, and of the same kind, whether it suits them or not. One has too much bread, and throws it away. Another has not enough of butcher’s meat, and so on. We have, therefore, made an experi- ment. We leave to the soldiers the free disposal of these 16 centimes, and we are happy to find that this has been attended with a great improvement in their condition. Each now consults his own tastes and likings, and studies the market prices of what they want to purchase. Generally they have, of their own accord, substituted a portion of butcher’s meat for bread. In some instances they buy more bread, in others more meat, in others more vegeta- bles, in others more fish. Their health is improved; they are better pleased; and the State is relieved from a great responsibility.” The reader will understand that it is not as bearing on military affairs that I cite this experiment. I refer to it as calculated to illustrate a radical dif- ference between public and private service, between official regulations and liberty. Would it be better for the State to take from us our means of sup- port, and undertake to feed us, or to leave us both our means of support and the care of feeding ourselves? The same question may be asked with refer- ence to all our wants. Harmonies 2 Chap Seventeen.qxd 7/6/2007 11:35 AM Page 490 [...]... concerned itself no further with him than to repress his acts of injustice and protect him from the Harmonies 2 Chap Seventeen.qxd 5 02 7/6 /20 07 11:35 AM Page 5 02 The Bastiat Collection injustice of others? Do we ever find a village rising against the authority of the local magistrate? The influence of liberty on the cause of order is sensibly felt in the United States There, all, save the administration... exchange their services, or unite their efforts, in place of continuing their isolated exertions—is there in this any sacrifice of liberty? Is it to sacrifice liberty to make a better use of it? Harmonies 2 Chap Seventeen.qxd 496 7/6 /20 07 11:35 AM Page 496 The Bastiat Collection The most that can be said is this, that men sacrifice part of their liberty to preserve the remainder not when they unite... between the two services Harmonies 2 Chap Seventeen.qxd 4 92 7/6 /20 07 11:35 AM Page 4 92 The Bastiat Collection exchanged Two principles—namely, the proportionality and the progression of taxation—have appeared in many respects to carry this approximation to its utmost limit But the slightest reflection will convince us that proportional taxation cannot, any more than progressive taxation, realize the exact... Seventeen.qxd 7/6 /20 07 11:35 AM Page 499 Harmonies of Political Economy—Book Two 499 Governments have yet another mission There are in all countries a certain amount of common property, enjoyed by the citizens jointly—rivers, forests, roads On the other hand, unfortunately, there are also debts It is the duty of Government to administer this active and passive portion of the public domain Finally, from these two... artificial existence On the other hand, the people have forgotten how to act for themselves At the moment they have succeeded in reconquering the liberty of which they were in quest, they are afraid of it, and repudiate it Offer them a free and voluntary system of education: they believe that all science is about to be extinguished Offer them religious liberty: they believe that atheism is about to invade... for all this, have the rich given up spoliation? They have not even dreamt of that; and the argument of the rebound still serves as the pretext Were this system of spoliation carried on by them directly, and without the intervention of the law, the sophism would become transparent Were you to take from the pocket of the workman a franc to pay your ticket to the theatre, would you have the gall to say... abundant the common fund becomes, the more is the inequality of property reduced We have seen that under the influence of liberty services tend to acquire their normal value, that is to say, a value proportionate to the labor This is a third cause of equality Harmonies 2 Chap Eighteen.qxd 510 7/6 /20 07 11:35 AM Page 510 The Bastiat Collection For these reasons we conclude that there is a tendency to the. .. changing these two fixed terms On the contrary, private interest whispers in the ear of the free laborer, The more you do for others, the more others will do for you.” In this case, the recompense depends entirely on the efforts of the workman being more or less intense, and more or less skillful No doubt esprit de corps, the desire for advancement, devotion to duty, may prove active stimulants with the. .. also, therefore, direct our attention to the origin and effects of Injustice 507 Harmonies 2 Chap Eighteen.qxd 508 7/6 /20 07 11:35 AM Page 508 The Bastiat Collection But it is not the less true that economical science must set out by explaining the theory of human transactions, assuming them to be free and voluntary, just as physiology explains the nature and relations of our organs, apart from the consideration... rights they do not themselves possess? We must, then, regard as a fundamental principle in politics this incontestable truth, that between individuals the intervention of force is legitimate only in the case of legitimate defense; and that a collective body of men cannot have recourse to force legally but within the same limit Harmonies 2 Chap Seventeen.qxd 498 7/6 /20 07 11:35 AM Page 498 The Bastiat Collection . equivalence, between the two services Harmonies 2 Chap Seventeen.qxd 7/6 /20 07 11:35 AM Page 491 4 92 The Bastiat Collection exchanged. Two principles—namely, the proportionality and the progression. it? Harmonies 2 Chap Seventeen.qxd 7/6 /20 07 11:35 AM Page 495 496 The Bastiat Collection The most that can be said is this, that men sacrifice part of their liberty to preserve the remainder not when they. from the Communism of Sparta or the Missions of 484 The Bastiat Collection Harmonies 2 Chap Seventeen.qxd 7/6 /20 07 11:35 AM Page 484 Paraguay, to the individualism of the United States and the