In these last days science has retrograded and been driven back. It has been bent and twisted under the obligation imposed upon it, if I may so speak, of denying the existence of Evil under pain of being convicted of denying the existence of God. Writers whose business it is to display exquisite sensibility, unbounded philanthropy, and unrivaled
[Excerpt from chapter 3 of the Bastiat Collection .] I wish someone would offer a prize—not of a hundred francs, but of a million, with crowns, medals and ribbons—for a good, simple and intelligible definition of the word “Government.” What an immense service it would confer on society! The Government! What is it? Where is it? what does it do?
[Editor’s note: In this selection, Bastiat explains the role of capital in building wealth, and why it is moral and proper that owners of capital ought to collect interest on the capital they lend out. Excerpt from chapter 5, “Capital and Interest,” in The Bastiat Collection (Auburn, AL: Mises Institute, 2011), pp. 147–58. ] 3. What Is Capital?
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.
