"Whenever there is in any country, uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right. The earth is given as a common stock for man to labour & live on. If, for the encouragement of industry we allow it to be appropriated, we must take care that other employment be furnished to those excluded from the appropriation."
You read that correctly -- Thomas Jefferson believed the unemployed poor who could not find a job should be provided one by the state. Who knew the author of the Declaration of Independence had so much in common with the "Bernie" wing of the Democratic party? The rise of Donald Trump was caused very heavily by inequality itself.
Let us not forget the loss of jobs, health, and ultimately hope that drove so many to Trump to begin with. Over the past 24 years, 16 of them have been ones where a Democrat was in charge. Regardless of whether the Democrats or the GOP have been in charge, middle class America and even more so, poor America, has been losing ground at the expense of the rich.
Today the rich rule everything. They can buy politicians, run for office themselves as Trump has dramatically illustrated, and they reap most of the capital gains from corporations, and benefit at the expense of the majority. For all its resilience, genius and longevity, our Constitution doesn’t have checks built into it to prevent oligarchy or populist demagogues (trump?). It was written on the assumption that America would remain relatively equal economically. No you say? Even the father of the Constitution, Madison worried that the number of Americans who had only the “bare necessities of life” would one day increase. When it did, he concluded, the institutions and laws of the country would need to be adapted, and that task would require “all the wisdom of the wisest patriots.”
With economic inequality rising and the middle class collapsing, the deep question we must ask today is whether our generation has enough wise patriots who will adapt the institutions and laws of our country — and save our republic. Otherwise we are doomed. Happy Sunday!
Trolls & Plagiarism; as automatic as PB & J.........
Terry
Do you find it odd that a man who allegedly lived lavishly beyond his means, owned over 600 slaves in his lifetime, and died bankrupt would be concerned about the unemployed poor?
False assumption.
Matt
Solo @ the Coast's Link
"We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt." -- Thomas Jefferson
"It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes--a principle which, if acted on, would save one-half the wars of the world." -- Thomas Jefferson
"If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretense of taking care of them, they must become happy." -- Thomas Jefferson
"The Utopian schemes of leveling (wealth redistribution), and a community of goods (socialism), are as visionary and impracticable as those which vest all property in the Crown. [These ideas] are arbitrary, despotic, and, in our government, unconstitutional." -- Samuel Adams
I could post dozens more like these, but they wouldn't make an iota of difference to someone like "Ryan"....
itshot's Link
credits at link...unless, of course, you are 'chris' in comments...and we all know that horse aint fuggn runnin
