The Adventures of Jonathan Gullible - Bastiat Institute

When law and
morality contradict
each other, the
citizen has the cruel
alternative of either
losing his moral
sense or losing his
respect for the law.
Frederick Bastiat
Chapter 8 • Two Zoos
Brainstorming
• Should people be forced to pay for a zoo?
• What reasons could there be for not paying?
• What happens to people who would refuse to
pay such a tax?
• On which side of the fence are the people
who are harming others?
• Examples?
• Ethical issues?
Commentary
Bureaucrats administer laws made by politicians.
In this position they are able to infl uence
politicians into the making of laws. They are
unelected and unaccountable to the public, yet
they are able to control almost every detail of
public life, often having their own agendas and
their own scores to settle.
All bureaucrats are civil servants but lower
civil servants many not be as involved with
the administration of laws. Civil servants (i.e.
non-military) are un-elected and employed as
servants to the civilian population (that’s you
and me!). They include clerks issuing licences,
traffi c offi cers, municipal employees, public zoo
offi cials, and prison administrators.
Are you happy that your money is used
for things you do not use? Is it right that we
are fi ned, penalised, or even put in jail for not
paying for services that are only of pleasure to
someone else?
If one considers the public services provided
by the state or by the municipalities, and one
then considers how many of these are used
by only a small portion of the population,
one can see that private enterprise is a fairer
system. Private enterprise is more motivated to
effi ciently serve the people who are willing to
pay for the services. Only those people using the
service would pay. Competition for customers
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