"Frederick Bastiat - That Which Is Seen-That Which Is Not" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bastiat Frederick)

without our collections, galleries, and museums? It might even be
asked, whether, without centralization, and consequently the support
of fine arts, that exquisite taste would be developed which is the
noble appendage of French labour, and which introduces its productions
to the whole world? In the face of such results, would it not be the
height of imprudence to renounce this moderate contribution from all
her citizens, which, in fact, in the eyes of Europe, realizes their
superiority and their glory?

To these and many other reasons, whose force I do not
dispute, arguments no less forcible may be opposed. It might, first of
all, be said, that there is a question of distributive justice in
it. Does the right of the legislator extend to abridging the wages
of the artisan, for the sake of adding to the profits of the artist?
M. Lamartine said, "If you cease to support the theatre, where will
you stop? Will you not necessarily be led to withdraw your support
from your colleges, your museums, your institutes, and your
libraries?" It might be answered, if you desire to support
everything which is good and useful, where will you stop? Will you not
necessarily be led to form a civil list for agriculture, industry,
commerce, benevolence, education? Then, is it certain that
government aid favours the progress of art?

This question is far from being settled, and we see very well
that the theatres which prosper are those which depend upon their
own resources. Moreover, if we come to higher considerations, we may
observe, that wants and desires arise, the one from the other, and
originate in regions which are more and more refined in proportion
as the public wealth allows of their being satisfied; that
Government ought not to take part in this correspondence, because in a
certain condition of present fortune it could not by taxation
stimulate the arts of necessity, without checking those of luxury, and
thus interrupting the natural course of civilization. I may observe,
that these artificial transpositions of wants, tastes, labour, and
population, place the people in a precarious and dangerous position,
without any solid basis.

These are some of the reasons alleged by the adversaries of
State intervention in what concerns the order in which citizens
think their wants and desires should be satisfied, and to which,
consequently, their activity should be directed. I am, I confess,
one of those who think that choice and impulse ought to come from
below and not from above, from the citizen and not from the
legislator; and the opposite doctrine appears to me to tend to the
destruction of liberty and of human dignity.

But, by a deduction as false as it is unjust, do you know
what economists are accused of? It is, that when we disapprove of
Government support, we are supposed to disapprove of the thing
itself whose support is discussed; and to be the enemies of every kind