As great as is the difference between the plowshare that feeds and the sword that kills, so great must be the difference between a nation of workers and a nation of plunderers. It is not possible for there to be any common ground between these two. They cannot have the same ideas, the same standards, the same tastes, the same character, the same customs, the same laws, the same morality, or the same religion.
1850
was part of the period that Keynes called 'the greatest age of the
inducement to investment". It was around to the peak of the Cycle of
Civilization, as I see it. From that lofty point, Bastiat could see
great differences between societies.
We also can see such
differences. But we are beyond the peak and near to what no one dares
call a "dark age". So we don't have to imagine those differences. We see
them every day, as we are in transition from the high of the cycle to
the low.
If you stand at the North Pole and I stand at the South, we both stand on our feet. But if I could see you, I would see that you look upside-down, as you would me. Each of us thinks ourself rightly positioned on top of the world, and the other guy all wrong.
The problem is economic decline. When we cannot get right by
righting the economy, we lean into it, we become disoriented, and we find ourselves we find the other guy not only wrong but inexplicable.
The
only solution that I can see is to improve the economy to the point
that everyone wants to be part of it. Only when the economy is good can
we see eye-to-eye.
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