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What I aspire to

Bastiat’s essence, therefore, was not that he wrote clearly, for audiences of non-economists, about economics.  It was not that he used humor frequently and effectively.  It was not that he was a master stylist.  No.  Bastiat’s distinguishing feature was his tireless effort to defend the case for free markets and free trade from the many vulgar misperceptions that prevent people from seeing the full play of market forces – and, likewise, that prevent them from seeing the full play of political interventions into market.

I fail, of course.

But that is the aspiration.

Better, as some haggis hunter pointed out, to aspire to what you cannot manage than settle for what you can.

7 thoughts on “What I aspire to”

  1. Your style worked for me and piqued my interest enough to go an buy a few books on the subject.

    I should probably add Chris Dillow to that, short, list as well.

  2. Still, at the very least we now know what to call Ritchie’s superficially-attractive-to-the-ignorant prattlings.

  3. So Much For Subtlety

    Rub-a-dub – “We are lucky Bastiat didn’t get distracted fisking the Guardian.”

    I don’t know. I think it is a shame that he was denied the chance to blog.

    John Stuart Mill, on the other hand, caught a break there.

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