Happy Birthday, Bastiat

Frederic Bastiat is 209 years young today.

June 30 2010 is also the final day for entries to the ninth annual Bastiat Prize for Journalism, which has prizes for both bloggers and print journalists: online entry form and full details are here.

Bastiat was masterful at exposing the absurd reasoning behind protectionist policies. His classics include A Negative Railroad and the Candlemakers' Petition- a satirical appeal to block out the sun to “save the candlemakers” in France.

Bastiat’s work is as relevant today as it was two centuries ago and those who carry on his legacy deserve recognition. How else, but with the clarity of humour, could we decipher the logic behind the EU taxing our shoes in order to “save our shoemakers” and the US unfairly subsidising agriculture abroad to compensate for unfairly subsidising its own farmers at home?

To celebrate his birthday, the Foundation for Economic Education has also published a free download of The Law on Facebook.