The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

388 THE FREEMAN Jul·yodical called Le Censeur (TheCensor) in France. The observationsmade in 1815 have permanentvalidity."The first way," wrote Dunoyer,"that occurs to man to satisfy hisneeds is to take; plunder was thefirst industry, as it was the firstend of human association; historyhardly knows a society that wasnot first formed for war andpillage."3"The first need of man," statedCharles Comte along the same lineof thought, "is to provide for hissubsistence, and, as we have alreadyseen, he can do so only bythe spontaneous product of nature,or by what he seizes from hisfellows, or by the produce of hisindustry."4Government SubvertedThe justification for peacefulgovernment is to prevent the seizureof one man's life and propertyby another. Today, governmenthas been subverted to perform thevery function the prevention ofwhich justifies its existence: pillage.This occurs when the governmentattempts to fulfill whatare commonly ·called social needs:it takes from some and gives toothers."In their present state," accordingto Dunoyer at the start of thenineteenth century, "the nationscan be compared to swarms madeup equally of hornets and bees,swarms in ~hich the bees agreeto produce torrents of honey forthe hornets, in the hope of keepingat least a. few combs for themselves.Unhappily, there is not alwayseven a small part left forthem . . . Man's concern is notwith government; he should lookon government as no more thana very secondary thing - we mightalmost say a very minor thing.His goal is industry, labor, andthe production of everythingneeded for his happiness. In awell-ordered state, the governmentmust be only an adjunct of production,an agency charged by theproducers, who pay for it, withprotecting their persons and theirgoods while they work. In a wellorderedstate, the largest possiblenumber of persons must work,and the smallest possible numbermust govern."5The same thought was expressedby Count Henri Saint-Simon, abrilliant but somewhat erratic andeccentric philosopher-economist,who was cognizant of the work ofComte and Dunoyer and who ironicallylater became the founder ofFrench socialism."Society," stated Saint-Simon,"needs to be governed as little aspossible, and there is only oneway to accomplish that - to begoverned as cheaply as possible."6Later Saint-Simon and his fol-