Today, the United States government regulates almost every sector of its citizens’ lives. It supports citizens that cannot or could not support themselves. It funds public schools to ensure its citizens know what it determines they should. It even monitors marriage. Within the past several months, it has paid out $700 billion in taxpayer money to bail out the mortgage industry, and then proposed spending almost 800 more on a stimulus package. In the midst of all this activity, few people have stopped to ask whether the government should actually be doing any of these things. Fortunately, Frederic Bastiat answered this question over a century ago in his treatise, The Law. In particular, he masterfully addresses the distinction between the roles of government and society, and in particular why the law should enforce justice and not other sectors of society.
