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Excerpt from Paine’s “Rights of Man”
Posted by Duncan on February 21st, 2010
I’m on a Thomas Paine kick right now…. reading “Common Sense” and “Rights of Man” currently…
“If, from the more wretched parts of the old world, we look at those which are in an advanced stage of improvement, we still find the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry, and grasping the spoil of the multitude. Invention is continually exercised, to furnish new pretenses for revenues and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape without tribute. ~Thomas Paine, Rights of Man
February 22nd, 2010 at 12:39 am
I have literally been told by a land planner (government) that all land is the government’s, but they allow us to use it as long as we stay within their rules.
The same with taxation. The bureaucrat looks at all money as the government’s, and the governments (fed, state and local) ALLOW us to keep a portion of THEIR money!
The Framers were correct in fearing government. They must have had a vision of what the courts, legislatures and executives would do in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, when we, the people bought into their lies about beneficent rule.