Part I: Government
American Principle Twelve
Vital to the American Work Ethic,
Property Ownership Must Be Secure
"… are entitled to life, liberty and property…"
Declaration, First Continental Congress, 1774
"All men… are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
Declaration of Independence
"That all men… have certain inherent rights… namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property" (Virginia Declaration of Rights, 1776).
"In the general course of human nature, a power over a man's subsistence amounts to a power over his will [to work and be responsible]" (The Federalist No. 79, by Alexander Hamilton).
Karl Marx (1818-1883) helped turn Soviet Russia into a socialist state. It collapsed after the death of hundreds of millions of people, some by starvation, others murdered by the government. According to Marx, capitalism would never work because of the inequities between the rich and poor. He achieved worldwide support of secular intellectuals for taxing the people and redistributing "each according to his ability, to each according to need" still common today. The truth is that capitalism, man's ownership of the fruits of his labor, helps both the rich and poor get richer. The promise of ownership encourages men to overcome the pain of labor and take personal responsibility.
Socialism was tried in the Plymouth Colony here in America following extensive food shortages. Instead of the "rule of man," Governor Bradford turned to the Bible for wisdom and then announced that settlers would have a plot of land, and thereafter be responsible for and entitled to the fruits of their own labor (April, 1623). Entire families went to work, and hard times changed to a plentiful supply of food.*
*http://www.sail1620.org/history/articles/122-plymouth-jamestown.html
"That is not a just government, nor is property secure under it, where arbitrary restrictions, exemptions, and monopolies deny to part of its citizens that free use of their faculties, and free choice of their occupations, which not only constitute their property in the general sense of the word; but are the means of acquiring property…" (Essay by James Madison, published in the National Gazette, March 29, 1792).
Linking the work ethic to the right of property ownership was a monumental break from the world's political history. The incentive of property ownership is the engine that makes an economy flourish. It is the increase in value of the products supplied by the worker that leads the buyer to spend his money to own the product.
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