“Personal property is the effect of society; and it is as impossible for an individual to acquire personal property without the aid of society, as it is for him to make land originally.
Separate an individual from society, and give him an island or a continent to possess, and he cannot acquire personal property. He cannot be rich. So inseparably are the means connected with the end, in all cases, that where the former do not exist, the latter cannot be obtained. All accumulation, therefore, of personal property, beyond what a man’s own hands produce, is derived to him by living in society; and he owes on every principle of justice, of gratitude, and of civilisation, a part of that accumulation back again to society from whence the whole came.”
Thomas Paine, Founding Father
h/t to commenter The Other Chuck at Balloon Juice
4 comments:
You know, it's not the principles of most conservatives that bug me. It's the absolutism. There are no absolutes.
Well, there's gravity, but then we don't have a unified theory of physics because of that, do we?
I lifted this for a Facebook post. I gave full credit to you and the blog. Hope you don't mind.
I don't mind a bit!
(Possible duplicate post - sorry)
The Randian/Tea-Partying GOP as currently constituted would have you believe that everything they have achieved or acquired is the result of nothing but their own hard work. This is patent nonsense: We need look no further than our navels to know that none of us got where we are without help from others, many others. But Republicans would rather believe they were raised by wolves than to acknowledge that anyone, anywhere, at any time has ever given them a helping hand.
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