[A] house divided against itself shall not stand.
— Matthew 12:25 , KJV Standard, 1769.
At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.
— Aristotle (384 – 322 BCE)
War can make murders out of otherwise decent people.
That may come as a shock to some of the viewers who perceive these mass murderers as horrible beasts.
Not so.
— Ben Ferencz (1920 – 2023), Prosecuting Evil, 2018.
Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes!
(13 November 1789)
Can sweetening our tea, &c. with sugar, be a circumstance of such absolute necessity?
Can the petty pleasure thence arising to the taste, compensate for so much misery produced among our fellow creatures, and such a constant butchery of the human species by this pestilential detestable traffic in the bodies and souls of men?
(The Somersett Case and the Slave Trade, The London Chronicle, 20 June 1772)
Well, Doctor, what have we got:
- a Republic, or
- a Monarchy?
(Mrs Powel of Philada & Benjamin Franklin, Constitutional Convention, 1787)
The Liberal Reward of Labour
Naomi Oreskes (1958):
In recent months 14 states have introduced or passed laws weakening labor protections for minors, even in notoriously dangerous industries, such as meatpacking.
Nonenforcement of existing laws that limit the hours and types of work that can be performed by kids is also on the rise.
This past year the number of minors illegally employed—including children as young as 13—increased by 37 percent. …
Advocates of weakened protections for children claim that the states—not the federal government—should decide; that attempts to regulate the workplace represent a federal power grab; and that the defenders of strict limits on child labor are socialists …
(Child Labor Laws Under Attack, Scientific American, September 2003, p 82)
The persistence of hyperconcentrated wealth
| Europe | United States | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Wealth Cohort | 1913 | 2018 | 2018 |
| Top 10% | 89% | 55% | 74% |
| Middle 40% | 10% | 40% | 14% |
| Bottom 50% | 1% | 5% | 2% |
| Top 10% : Bottom 50% | 445:1 | 55:1 | 185:1 |
| Europe = Average of United Kingdom, France, and Sweden. | |||
Thomas Piketty (1971):
The sharp increase of the top decile share, especially in the United States, reflects a gradual and worrisome erosion of the share owned by the rest of the population.
The lack of diffusion of wealth is a central issue for the twenty-first century, which may undermine the confidence of the lower and middle classes in the economic system …
(Figure 13.10, Capital and Ideology, 2020)
Financial assets held in tax havens
Thomas Piketty (1971):
By exploiting anomalies in international financial statistics and breakdowns by country of residence from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the Swiss National Bank (SNB), one can estimate that the share of financial assets held in tax havens is:These figures exclude nonfinancial assets (such as real estate) and financial assets unreported to BIS and SNB, and should be considered minimum estimates.
- 4 percent for the United States,
- 10 percent for Europe, and
- 50 percent for Russia.
(Figure 12.5, Capital and Ideology, 2020, emphasis added)
Adam Smith (1723 – 90)
No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable. …
Wherever there is a great property, there is great inequality.
For every rich man, you must have hundred poor.
And that rich man must live every time in fear because of the jealousy of others.
And if it is not for the firm hand of the magistrate … he would not be able to keep his capital safe. …
[Civil government,] in so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defense
- of the rich against the poor, or
- of those who have some property against those who have none …
Poverty, though it no doubt discourages, does not always prevent, marriage.
It seems even to be favourable to generation.
A half-starved Highland woman frequently bears more than twenty children, while a pampered fine lady is often incapable of bearing any, and is generally exhausted by two or three.
Barrenness, so frequent among women of fashion, is very rare among those of inferior station.
Luxury, in the fair sex, while it inflames, perhaps, the passion for enjoyment, seems always to weaken, and frequently to destroy altogether, the powers of generation. …
But poverty, though it does not prevent the generation, is extremely unfavourable to the rearing of children.
It is not uncommon, I have been frequently told, in the Highlands of Scotland, for a mother who has born twenty children not to have two alive. …
This great mortality, however will everywhere be found chiefly among the children of the common people, who cannot afford to tend them with the same care as those of better station.
Though their marriages are generally more fruitful than those of people of fashion, a smaller proportion of their children arrive at maturity. …
Every species of animals naturally multiplies in proportion to the means of their subsistence, and no species can ever multiply beyond it.
But in civilized society, it is only among the inferior ranks of people that the scantiness of subsistence can set limits to the further multiplication of the human species; and it can do so in no other way than by destroying a great part of the children which their fruitful marriages produce. …
The liberal reward of labour, by enabling them to provide better for their children, and consequently to bring up a greater number, naturally tends to widen and extend those limits.
It deserves to be remarked, too, that it necessarily does this as nearly as possible in the proportion which the demand for labour requires. …
It is in this manner that the demand for men, like that for any other commodity, necessarily regulates the production of men,
- quickens it when it goes on too slowly, and
- stops it when it advances too fast.
The liberal reward of labour, therefore, as it is the effect of increasing wealth, so it is the cause of increasing population.
To complain of it, is to lament over the necessary cause and effect of the greatest public prosperity.
(The Wealth of Nations, 1776)
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Michelle Simmons
