This reading was extremely interesting to me as I did not realize how much I agree with a lot of the things that Frederic Bastiat wrote in The Law. I believe that we are given the responsibility of “preserving, developing, and perfecting” “physical, moral, and intellectual life” as Bastiat writes. It is interesting to think about how humans will develop a natural inclination to have others do their hard work if possible. Bastiat says that “when [humans] can, they wish to live and prosper at the expense of others.” A very basic, wholesome example of this would be when people with a lot of money will hire more hands within their house to do daily chores and such so that they can have a relaxed, peaceful life.
If we think about fast fashion and the way that the world responds to trends in society, it is a global example of this. We are so quick to support a retailer because they are cheap and sweet child labor and unsustainable practices under the rug. We all recognize that fast fashion is morally wrong, but why do we keep buying it? The people who are not as privileged as the majority of Americans make the clothes for little to no wages and are treated poorly. We have all seen the images of the landfills full to brim with our poor choices. The trend of sweeping unethical actions, like fast fashion, and having an “out of sight, out of mind” mentality is like what Frederick Bastiat believes to be true of socialists with their false philanthropy to cover their greed.
*Our society has become greedy with consumerism and materialism. Instant gratification is such a disturbance to all of us. *An overwhelming majority of people do not dig deeper to find out what they truly believe and feel is morally permissible because they do not want to sit and think. The modern world moves too fast for slow, intentional living. As a marketing major, it is terrifying to see how easily an advertisement can take advantage of a population because of blind trust and the inability to dig deeper to discover the truth. Politics is, in my opinion, the most impacted by this trend. If a politician says something, it is blindly believed by an overwhelming majority of people who support the politician. We are so divided because we want to be correct and validated without looking at the other perspective and potential truth within another opinion.