The Students For Liberty
Bastiat Project
Bastiat Project
“The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else.”
As students for liberty, we are well acquainted with economic fallacies. For as long as the debate over liberty has been waged, our opponents have used unsound arguments to try to justify greater government involvement in our economic affairs.
Our generation is not the first to be confronted by these erroneous arguments. In fact, they have already been confronted and proved fallacious by Frederick Bastiat. A 19th century French political economist, Bastiat dedicated his life to proving that government by its nature possesses neither the moral authority to intervene in our economic freedom nor the practical ability to create prosperity through intervention.
Bastiat’s analysis is as relevant now as it was when he first penned the famous critiques. To defeat the economic fallacies once again, Students For Liberty is partnering with the Atlas Economic Research Foundation to introduce The Bastiat Project. The Bastiat Project has two aspects: a book for mass distribution on college campuses and an essay contest for all current students.
The Book
SFL and Atlas will be publishing a new book, The Economics of Freedom: What Your Professors Won’t Tell You. It will feature a collection of Bastiat’s best essays including such classics as “What is Seen and What is Not Seen” and “The Law”, along with contemporary essays by Nobel Laureate F.A. Hayek and Atlas Foundation Vice President Tom G. Palmer.
You can now request up to 600 of these books for mass distribution on campus this fall. They will be a great tool for spreading the arguments of liberty and will attract new members to your group.
The "Bastiat's Legacy Essay Contest"
The second part of the project is an essay contest open to any current student. Submissions will be reviewed by a panel of liberty movement leaders from the academic and public policy fields.
The topic to be addressed is: “Relate the central theme in one of Bastiat’s essays to a current public policy issue.” We will be awarding eight $100 prizes, one $200 second place prize, and one $1000 grand prize. The grand and second place prizes winners will also recieve scholarships to the 2011 International SFL Conference. The winners will be announced at the 2011 International Students For Liberty Conference in Washington, DC.
Click here to learn more and sign up for the Students For Liberty Bastiat Project today!
P.S. The deadline for the SFL Campus Coordinator Program has been extended until midnight on Friday, Apriil 30th. There will not be another extension.
If you have not applied yet, do so now here.
