James Meyer (Letters, January 13) quotes Anatole France in saying that effective altruists have legal obligations, but he ignores the writer’s sense of irony. France did not mention altruists as such, but said “the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets and to steal bread” (my italics). In other words, only the poor need fear the law.
He was more explicit in his short novel Crainquebille, where he wrote that “to demand that justice be done is the idea of an anarchist”.
Robert Holloway
Paris, France
