Our Socialist Founders

Thomas Paine writes “Agrarian Society”. Samuel Adams denounces superfluous wealth; John Hancock divests it. Jefferson, John Adams, Barlow, Smith were among those who return from Europe disgusted with the accumulation of wealth by the elite at the expense of the commons. Ben Franklin writes to Robert Morris that extraordinary wealth is the creature of public convention and a direct result of public law; and the public, by law, has the right to dispose of it. He writes that it is the right and responsibility of the public to regulate the inheritance of descendents and the conveyance of property. He goes further and suggests that the public has the right to limit individual wealth and determine its’ use. These men were not the anti-tax, anti-government creatures some would have us believe.

When the neo-cons of our generation invoke the Constitution and the founders to support conservative views they could not be further off-base. In fact, the neo-cons would be considered Tories in the late 1770’s; not Patriots. The founders of our country would be tea-bagged out of the GOP and unwelcomed by today’s Democrats. By every account the founders were liberal socialists and would be horrified by the Reagan revolution and the every man for himself circus our generation has created.

This is not to say there should be no debate concerning taxation, but the debate should be about equitable and shared sacrifice. The elite among us should stop hiding behind the “job creator” label; particularly when the jobs they are creating are in China and Indonesia. Since the 1980’s the middle class, the true driver of the economy, has borne an inequitable share of the burden.

We should have debate about spending. Not about how little we can get by with, rather how much can we afford and where it should be spent in order to maximize the return on our investment; realizing that our generation may not enjoy the fruits of it, but rather the next one and the next. We need to do all we can to insure that our children and grandchildren enjoy a modern economy and the best education that we can offer. True security, not security based in fear and tenable only at the point of a gun.

Our corporations should understand that maximizing profits are not what we need, rather how much profit can be reasonable sacrificed in order to employ the American worker and strengthen the American economy.

Our generation, through misguided economic policy has taken a thirty year vacation from our responsibilities as Americans; the responsibility of shared sacrifice that the founders of our country intended. It is past time that we view ourselves as a society again instead of the “get what’s mine” culture we are all complicit in creating.