Rational Nation USA

Rational Nation U S A Purveyor of Truth It has always been a question of mine. How exactly have the tea party conservatives who so admire and quote Thomas Paine managed to overlook this pamphlet and its contents? Maybe most have never been aware of its existence? Or, perhaps it has been by design? In the winter of 1795-96 Thomas Paine wrote his last great pamphlet, "Agrarian Justice." The pamphlet was first published in French in Paris. An English edition was brought out in 1797. In this pamphlet Paine advocated the creation of a social insurance scheme for the aged and for young people just starting out in life. The benefits were to be paid from a national fund accumulated for this purpose. The fund was to be financed by a 10% tax on inherited property. A tax on inherited property was used due to Paine's general philosophy of property rights. Although he based his social insurance scheme on a line of argument that might sound quaint in the present era, in other r...

“...taxes are not raised to carry on wars, but that wars are raised to carry on taxes” “That there are men in all countries who get their living by war, and by keeping up the quarrels of nations, is as shocking as it is true; but when those who are concerned in the government of a country, make it their study to sow discord and cultivate predjudices between nations, it becomes the more unpardonable. “If men will permit themselves to think, as rational beings ought to think, nothing can appear more ridiculous and absurd, exclusive of all moral reflections, than to be at the expence of building navies, filling them with men, and then hauling them into the ocean, to try which can sink each other fastester. Peace, which costs nothing, is attended with infintely more advantage than any victory with all its expence. But this, though it best answers the purpose of Nations, does not that of Court Governments, whose habited policy is pretence for taxation, places, and offices.” Thomas Pai...

by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation USA Liberty -vs- Tyranny “Entrepreneur’s Credo I do not choose to be a common man, It is my right to be uncommon … if I can, I seek opportunity … not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen. Humbled and dulled by having the State look after me. I want to take the calculated risk; To dream and to build. To fail and to succeed. I refuse to barter incentive for a dole; I prefer the challenges of life To the guaranteed existence; The thrill of fulfillment To the stale calm of Utopia. I will not trade freedom for beneficence Nor my dignity for a handout I will never cower before any master Nor bend to any threat. It is my heritage to stand erect. Proud and unafraid; To think and act for myself, To enjoy the benefit of my creations And to face the world boldly and say: This, with God’s help, I have done All this is what it means To be an Entrepreneur.” ― Thomas Paine, Common Sense   As I listened to the President a...

by: Les Carpenter Rational Nation USA Birthplae of Independent Conservatism The more things change the more they stay the same. Or so it seems. Thomas Paine, a common man and yet a great thinker seems to have had it about right. And just imagine, as far back as 1791. "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, 1791 Okay, go ahead progressives, refute the wisdom herein presented.