A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.
This is the sum of good government.
Thomas Jefferson
First Inaugural Address
March 4,1801
Lovely idea, do you think it´s been followed?
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5 comments:
Depends which country you are talking about. No government can stop people from hurting each other - but if Jefferson was talking about war - then first world countries have done a pretty good job of maintaining peace within their borders. When you think of the rest of the world living with extreme governmental/military control - we Canadians are incredibly lucky to live where we do.
We're very good at encouraging industry, even turning a blind eye on illegal immigration, knowing the US is built on the backs of slaves and now, illegal immigrants earning less than minimum wage.
About not taking bread from the labourers, think of the healthcare system in the US - it's the number one cause of bankruptcy, poverty and homelessness. Anyone on minimum wage cannot afford the healthcare bills and it causes them great stress and worry. US had failed on that big time.
MY best friend works in the ER - she tells me american women time their visits to Canada around their baby's due date cause it's cheaper in Canada. It's getting so common that now the Canadian hospitals are kicking them back to the US because we Canadian taxpayers cannot afford to pay for the medical bills of all the americans coming across the border.
But if one steps back and compares first world and third world countries in very general ways - we're still much better off in terms of quality of living. (Income, healthcare, bureaucracy, schools, food, etc etc etc) yet on the other hand, we're getting fatter literally and figuratively and more depressed too for excessive consumerism - well, you are what you eat - in many different ways.
I could talk forever on this subject.
In Argentina you have good Public healthcare, but you need to wait many hours for "Urgencies" and ages for an appointment.
On the other hand, you pay hundreds of pesos for just an average to poor private. (Do you remember your former post about it?)
This was Jefferson and countries were countries. Now world moves around corporation politics. This is the real thing by now.
"shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement" that part I find interesting in regards to the fact that all areas of education or development in industry/business become more and more institutionalized in some places - so many things that one can't access for a missing certificate or permission, even if there does not seem to be any logic to it, it's still money into someone's pockets. I like the fact that there is still a niche there in one or the other country in Latin America.
Anyhoo, if USA has lotta troubles in many social areas and succeed in warfare, I think that something is going bad.
We, Argentine have a book written by Walter Graziano that I strongly recomend
I like Jefferson´s inclusion in the US Declaration of Independence of the pursuit of happiness among other inalienable rights of men.
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