Frédéric Bastiat：Economic Sophisms, Excerpt 171

Workmen! your situation is peculiar! They make merchandise of you, as I shall show you immediately.... But no; I withdraw that expression. Let us steer clear of strong language, which may be misapplied; for spoliation, wrapt up in the sophistry which conceals it, may be in full operation unknown to the spoliator, and with the blind assent of his victim. Still, you are deprived of the just remuneration of your labour, and no one is concerned to do you _justice_. If all that was wanted to console you were ardent appeals to philanthropy, to impotent charity, to degrading almsgiving; or if the grand words, organization, communism, _phalanstère,_* were enough for you, truly they would not be spared. But _justice_, simple justice, no one thinks of offering you. And yet, would it not be _just_ that when, after a long day's toil, you have received your modest wages, you should have it in your power to exchange them for the greatest amount of satisfactions and enjoyments which you could possibly obtain for them from any one in any part of the world?

Source： https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44145
Locator：Excerpt 171 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Short excerpt

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