Mission Statement

The Bastiat Society promotes the fact that the world is getting better, and that it's the creation of wealth through business that is doing it.

The Society's argument can be simply stated:

* Trade is a fundamental and virtuous human activity.
* Peaceful and profitable trade creates wealth.
* Wealth makes the world better.
* Those who create wealth through trade are not villains, but are the true owners of the moral high ground and benefactors of the human race.

Instead of abandoning the moral high ground to glib academics, politicians, and other condescending moralists, the Bastiat Society reclaims the moral authority of peaceful and profitable business.

Educating Drivers Everyday

Educating your fellow citizens about important figures in the history of freedom can be as simple as driving around town with a custom license plate.

Have you seen others?

Join the Bastiat Society!

What are you waiting for?
* Join the movement to promote the moral and material benefits of free enterprise.
* Start a Bastiat Society monthly meeting in your home town. We'll tell you how.
* Get regular updates on what's happening and what's new.
* Annual membership is $200
* Founding membership is $2,000
* Our monthly meetings are free and open to the public through the generosity of our members and founding members
Register here:


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The Mercurius Society

The Mercurius Society is a London-based group with goals very similar to the Bastiat Society.  Its web site describes the Mercurius Society as follows:

"The Society was launched in London in September 2007. Since its establishment, the Society has brought together young business leaders and entrepreneurs for topical discussions with high-profile guest speakers. Mercurius Societies have been formed in other cities in Europe. The Society seeks to link those in the private sector who share the concepts of limited government and individual liberty with their counterparts in think-tanks, politics, academia and the media. The mission of the Mercurius Society is to strengthen support for free enterprise; enlist business leaders into the free market community; and encourage them to take pride in their role as the creators of prosperity."

I've added a link to the Society under "Free Market Links."

New Links to Shake the Status Quo

Shaking up the status quo is a risky business. Entrenched political interests -- read Democrats and Republicans -- have erected a complex set of tripwires and booby traps to discourage any political activity outside of their control.

Protected from the outside, rule number one on the inside is "Don't shake things up." Expecting those who benefit from the status quo to change things is like expecting North Korea to hold free elections.

I've added three new links for those who are willing to take a risk.

The first is to the South Carolina Policy Council. Its president, Ashley Landess, spoke at the January 2009 monthly meeting about the Council's efforts to make the case for increased state government transparency. The Policy Council is a 501(c)3 engaged in education and research.

You'll find the link to the Policy Council under "Free Market Links" down the left-hand side your screen.

You'll also find a new link for the South Carolina Club for Growth. The Club is a 501(c)4, which means it can engage directly in political campaigns. The Club promotes state candidates who can reliably carry the message of limited government.

The third link is under "Related Events." There you'll find a link to the BB&T Speaker Series at the Initiative for Public Choice and Market Process at the College of Charleston. The Initiative is bringing in Mike Munger, Chair of the Political Science Department at Duke University.

Enjoy!

New Links

Check out what's new in the Bastiat Society's Free Market Links.

First, you'll find a link to Laissez-faire Books. LFB is a venerable institution that began in the dark ages when book catalogs were hard-copy publications; when they arrived only via US Mail; a time when a toll free number was high-tech; a time when people actually dialed a telephone; a time called 1972.

Second, you'll find a link to TV Liberty, a collection of videos including Walter Williams discussing "The Entrepreneur as American Hero."

Need a Speaker? Try Bastiat!

Do you need a speaker for your next event?

Are you looking for a speaker who can entertain and inform your audience?

Want to hear some good news?

Consider inviting the Bastiat Society to provide a speaker for your next event!

The Bastiat Society is a non-profit organization created to spread the message that business is an inherently moral as well as uniquely productive form of social organization.

The Society may be able to provide a speaker for your next convention or trade show. It may also help arrange speakers for civic, fraternal and social organizations. Our favorite topics include:

* Business People: Heroes of the Modern World
* The Engine of Progress
* Business and Society
* Why Politics is Not the Answer (Usually)
* Business, Faith, and Reason
* The Merchant Ape

Why use the Bastiat Society?

* We deliver a unique message: the world is getting better, and business is the key
* You work directly with your speaker, not a bureau
* We are experienced
* We are very affordable

As a non-profit organization, our message is more important than collecting a fee. If you can make a contribution to the Bastiat Society, we will gratefully accept it, but a contribution is not required. However, we do ask you to cover travel and lodging, if necessary.

To check available dates or request more information, click here to email Ben Rast, President of the Bastiat Society.

Reason Weekend in Charleston

The Bastiat Society is pleased to announce that Paul Atkins, Commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, DC, and Kathy Gornik, President of Thiel Audio in Lexington, Kentucky, are recipients of Bastiat Awards. Mr. Atkins will receive the Bastiat in Public Policy Award, and Ms. Gornik will receive the Bastiat in Business Award. The awards will be presented at a gala dinner in Charleston, South Carolina on Saturday, April 5th, 2008.

The Bastiat Awards are given in four areas: Public Policy, Culture, Academics, and Business. The awards honor individuals who, in the course of their professional lives, have distinguished themselves in promoting free market ideas and a greater appreciation of the socially beneficial and inherently moral nature of peaceful commercial activity.

The Society and the awards are named after the French economist Frédéric Bastiat (1801 – 1850), one of the all-time great spokesmen for classical liberalism, who was famous for his ability to translate complex economic ideas into language anyone could understand.

You have your choice. You can register for the entire Reason Weekend -- highly recommended -- or register for just the dinner.

The schedule follows. You can open a full-screen version of the schedule by clicking on the far right button of the Scribd toolbar.

Read this doc on Scribd: rw2008schedule

Reason Weekend 2008
April 3-6, 2008
Charleston Place Hotel
Charleston, SC
Register for the weekend now!

Reason Weekend is an outstanding opportunity to connect with friends who share a passion for liberty. Join Reason President David Nott and Reason Founder Bob Poole in Charleston, South Carolina for three days of outstanding speakers, excellent food, and stimulating conversation.

Located across from the Old City Market in the heart of downtown Charleston , Charleston Place combines Southern charm with the luxuries you expect from a five-star hotel. Golf, tennis, and a private walking tour of the city have also been arranged for our guests.

Register for the weekend now!

What is the Bastiat Society?

Periodically, for the benefit of new visitors to this site, I like to explain the purpose of the Bastiat Society.

To put it simply, the Bastiat Society exists to remind business people that their idea of what is good must include, first and foremost, the noble work they do everyday, creating wealth, creating jobs, and solving the problems of other people.

The Rational Animal

Aristotle defined man as a rational animal. New scientific research adds the qualifier, "but not all the time." In fact, chimpanzees appear to be more consistent rational maximizers than humans.

While it is true that people generally behave in rational ways, there are many well-documented occasions when people consistently behave in ways that defy reason. The systematic study of such behavior is known as "behavioral finance" or "behavioral economics."

One of the best-known tests in behavioral finance is the ultimatum game. In this test, two individuals must agree on how to divide a reward. No agreement, no reward.

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute report that when chimpanzees play the ultimatum game, the chimps behave the way traditional economic theory predicts that a rational economic agent should. Chimps will accept whatever they are given, and are thereby rationally better off. Humans, on the other hand, will reject any deal that strays too far from a 50-50 division of the reward, thereby sacrificing a rational improvement in their condition in favor of some other value.

The difference between the two species appears to be a sense of fair play. Chimps don't care about it. People do. Apparently, for humans, fair play trumps reason.

A Society of Wealth Creators

The great strength of capitalism is that it is an economic system wherein everyone has the opportunity to be successful without ever thinking about the intellectual and cultural context that makes success possible. We don't have to know everything. We just have to know something useful to other people, and have sense enough to use it for our mutual advantage.

Unfortunately, an economy built on limited individual knowledge is also capitalism's great weakness. It leaves the system vulnerable to those who claim that their perfect knowledge or their theory of the will of history is more important than individual knowledge or the will of the individual.

If the individuals who benefit most from capitalism -- the wealth creators -- do not understand the intellectual and cultural institutions that make business possible, what chance do they have to withstand a steady series of attacks from the intellectuals, populists, collectivists, and religious extremists who want to bring capitalism and the life of the individual to an end?

That is why we formed the Bastiat Society: to educate other wealth creators on their right to the moral high ground, and on the intellectual and cultural institutions that are necessary for individuals to be successful. Our motto is "Those who work in freedom should know how freedom works."

We call on successful business people everywhere to join us in an organization unlike any the world has ever seen: a society of principled wealth creators, the benefactors of the human race, committed to reclaiming the moral high ground and the life of the individual.

Families and Free Markets

The Bastiat Society's argument states that the free market is the best way to organize large numbers of individuals in a productive and just society. Why large numbers? Because humans organize successfully on a smaller scale in a variety of other ways. Families for example.

As any parent can tell you, the relationship between parent and child is a long way from being organized on a market basis. Being a baby is the one time in your life you can be fat, bald, toothless, unemployed and incontinent, and everyone thinks you’re cute. Try getting away with it when you’re fifty.

As a kid gets older, he regularly takes more out of the parent-child relationship than he puts into it. Parenting is a one-way drain of the parents’ time, money, and energy. If an employee acted like your kid, you’d fire him. If your business partner acted like your kid, you’d sue him. If a kid who isn’t your kid acted like your kid, you’d kick him out of your house.

We tolerate our own kid for twenty years – or more. Construct a balance sheet of the advantages and disadvantages of having a kid. You’ll find that in return for paying for his room, board, clothes, education and entertainment, all you’ll get is love. Yet, it seems to be enough. That is the power of love.

But when we attempt to expand such one-way, sacrificial, and emotionally intense relationships to larger numbers of people, they quickly break down. Humans can work effectively with just a handful of these kinds of relationships, and no more. At some critical point, the nature of additional relationships must change if they are going to work at all.

Markets are a powerful way of coordinating an infinitely large number of new relationships. Unlike small scale relationships, markets do not require unilateral sacrifice. They do not require the intense emotional commitment of families. They allow individuals to trade for mutual benefit, using the smallest bits of information about the other individuals involved. Market relationships actually save time, create wealth, and conserve energy.

When you buy something from a vendor, you save time because you don’t have to make it, distribute it, or stock it. When you buy something for sale, you trade a less desirable possession (money) for a more desirable possession (the thing purchased), thereby creating a net social positive (a satisfied buyer and a satisfied seller). Finally, when you buy something, you conserve your energy for the same reason you save time. All this occurs without violence.

Human nature is consistent with both kinds of organization, in their proper context. Small scale organization produces families. Large scale organization produces civilizations. A free market produces the most prosperous, peaceful, and just civilization of all.

The Bastiat Society Honors Atkins and Gornik

The Bastiat Society is pleased to announce that Paul Atkins, Commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, DC, and Kathy Gornik, President of Thiel Audio in Lexington, Kentucky, are recipients of Bastiat Awards. Mr. Atkins will receive the Bastiat in Public Policy Award, and Ms. Gornik will receive the Bastiat in Business Award. The awards will be presented at a gala dinner in Charleston, South Carolina on Saturday, April 5th, 2008.

The Bastiat Awards are given in four areas: Public Policy, Culture, Academics, and Business. The awards honor individuals who, in the course of their professional lives, have distinguished themselves in promoting free market ideas and a greater appreciation of the socially beneficial and inherently moral nature of peaceful commercial activity.

The Society and the awards are named after the French economist Frédéric Bastiat (1801 – 1850), one of the all-time great spokesmen for classical liberalism, who was famous for his ability to translate complex economic ideas into language anyone could understand.

For more information, please contact Stephanie Whitener.

Image property of Walter O. LeCroy

The Power of Choice

Bob Chitester will be the speaker at the July Bastiat Society monthly meeting.

Mr. Chitester is President and CEO of the Palmer R. Chitester Fund, Chitester Creative Associates, Inc. and The Idea Channel®; and is managing partner of Free to Choose Enterprise. These companies produce television programs and program elements, create and operate web sites, create print and CD-ROM materials, and distribute curriculum materials to high schools and colleges.

Date: Wednesday, 11 July 2007
Hors d'oeuvres : 5:00 pm
Speaker: 6:00 pm
Location: Imaging Arts Gallery 175 King Street, Charleston, SC
RSVP to Stephanie Whitener

In 1977, Mr. Chitester convinced Milton Friedman to undertake a project which became, Free to Choose, an award winning PBS TV series and an international best selling book based on the series. Over 25 years later the series and book are still in wide use and have been notably influential. Mart Laar, first Prime Minister of a free Estonia and recent winner of the Friedman Prize, used Free to Choose as a guide in setting policies that gave Estonia a thriving economy.

The Palmer R. Chitester Fund is a 501-c-3 public foundation doing business as izzit.org (formerly In the Classroom Media) and Free to Choose Media. Its mission is: To use easily understood and entertaining popular media to reach inquisitive minds regarding the value and interrelationship of personal, economic and political freedom sustained by the rule of law.

izzit.org created the Stossel in the Classroom teaching units and services a nationwide network of teachers in over 68% of all secondary schools in the United States. Currently over 84,000 teachers use these and new video materials developed by izzit.org to supplement classroom curriculum for over 13 million students.

Free to Choose Media recently completed production of The Power of Choice a television biography of Milton Friedman to be telecast on PBS. In the works are several other programs, including a biography of Secretary of State George Shultz and commentaries by and about Hernando de Soto and Bjorn Lomborg.

In the mid nineties, working with TCI in Denver, Chitester Creative Associates, Inc. created Damn Right, a week-nightly, half-hour program, whose alumni, include David Asman, Eric Burns and Douglas Kennedy, currently regulars on the Fox Cable News Channel, Jonathan Karl of ABC news, and Richard Loury, editor of National Review. Another production, “National School Assembly,” with David Robinson, MVP Center with the San Antonio Spurs, is currently being offered to teachers via izzit.org.

The Idea Channel is a library of over 200 video recordings of intellectual discussions between the world's leading scholars, the collection currently includes more than 50 Nobel Prize recipients, including Friedrich von Hayek, Jim Buchanan, Christian de Duve, Norman Borlaug and Charles Townes.

Along with Milton and Rose Friedman, Mr. Chitester is the managing partner of Free To Choose Enterprise. Free To Choose Enterprise manages licensing and sales of “Free to Choose,” hosted by Professor Friedman, 1976 Nobel prize winning economist.

Mr. Chitester has more than forty five years of experience in television management and program development. He started educational television facilities at Buena Vista High School in Saginaw, Michigan and Edinboro State University in Pennsylvania. In 1966, he became the founding General Manager of the Erie, Pennsylvania PBS and NPR stations (WQLN and WQLN-FM), which he headed until 1982.

Mr. Chitester earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Michigan, and received an honorary Doctor of Literature degree from Allegheny College. He and his wife, Carol Lovell, have four children and eight grandchildren.

Image © 2006 Free to Choose Media. All Rights Reserved.

Business Owns the Moral High Ground

"The Bastiat Society was organized to promote awareness in the business community that the world is getting better, and it’s commerce that’s doing it. Trade is a fundamental and virtuous human activity.Those who trade are not villains, but are the actual owners of the moral high ground. Instead of abandoning it to glib academics, politicians, and other condescending pretenders who usually frame the terms of the debate, the business community should speak up and reclaim the moral high ground."

Walter O. LeCroy
Founder, Board Member, and Retired CEO of The LeCroy Corporation
Co-founder and Chairman of The Bastiat Society

What is the Bastiat Society?

The Bastiat Society is named after the great French economist, Frederic Bastiat. Bastiat was famous for making complex ideas easy to understand.

One topic widely misunderstood today is the morality of business. While businesses compete to feed, clothe, shelter, entertain and empower individuals of every age, occupation and nation, academics, intellectuals, popular artists and ambitious politicians portray business people as villains or buffoons.

It is time for business people to counterattack these gross distortions of the truth.

The Bastiat Society proclaims the productive, humane, and moral leadership of honest business people.