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Autobiography benjamin franklin thesis
Autobiography benjamin franklin thesis
Biography essay benjamin franklin
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In “The Way to Wealth,” the 1758 essay included in Poor Richard’s Almanac during its first few years of publication, Benjamin Franklin recounts a story whereby locals were gathered outside a merchant auction and complaining of “the badness of the times” to Father Abraham, an elderly man. “‘…[W]hat think you of the times? Will not these heavy taxes quite ruin the country? How shall we ever be able to pay them?” Father Abraham acknowledges their plight: “The taxes are indeed very heavy, and, if those laid on by the government were the only ones we had to pay, we might more easily discharge them; but we have many others, and much more grievous to some of us.” And with that, he implored them to take personal control of their situation: “…[L]et us hearken to good advice, and something may be done for us …” …show more content…
The advice offers relevant insights for convenience retailers, in light of sharply rising direct store operating expenses (DSOE), a primary industry “watch out” cited at last year’s State of the Industry Summit (SOI) in Chicago. Encompassing wages, payroll taxes, healthcare insurance, card fees, utilities, repairs and supplies, the category is growing quickly and on pace to surpass swipe fees. While government mandates make some of these expenses unavoidable, there are proactive measures you can take to mitigate their impact on your business. Borrowing from Father Abraham: “If you would have my advice, I will give it to you in short, for a word to the wise is enough
In Myne Owne Ground, Breen and Innes write about being a “tithable”. A tithable is “someone obliged to pay taxes”. In 1645, an act regarding tithables stated,
The beginning influential essay examines the Revolution through the experiences and recollections of Hewes who, in the 1830s, had two biographies written about him as Americans were trying to re-appropriate and reinterpret the era to reflect their own perspectives. Hewes never becomes rich but he was still known as a humble man. One of Hewes earliest memories, that Young mentions, is a meeting with John Hancock, one of the wealthiest men in Boston. Hewes became a shoemaker which was, in Young’s assessment, among the lowliest and least respected occupation. For Hewes, the American Revolution became about social equality, where a poor cobbler was as important as a wealthy merchant to the body politic. This is represented when Hewes recounts that even the wealth John Hancock was throwing crates into the water next to him. Young gives Hewes a partial justification in believing this by stating “American Revolution was not a plebian revolution” there was nevertheless “a powerful plebian current within it”
Gordon S. Wood delves into Benjamin Franklin’s philosophical, political, and personal legacies in the biography, The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin. The book travels through Franklin’s experiments, his travels in Europe, and his role in the American revolution. The book begins when Franklin retires from business and becomes a gentleman. It was when he became a gentleman, it allowed him to analyze the world around him. “Indeed, he could not drink a cup of tea without wondering why the tea leaves at the bottom gathered in way rather than another,” a quote from Edmund S. Morgan’s book, Benjamin Franklin. Franklin spent a great deal of time in Britain before returning to America. When he returned, he threw himself into the American revolution, which sent him to France. After he accomplished his duties in France, he returned back home to America where he ran for public office.
“In the first years of peacetime, following the Revolutionary War, the future of both the agrarian and commercial society appeared threatened by a strangling chain of debt which aggravated the depressed economy of the postwar years”.1 This poor economy affected almost everyone in New England especially the farmers. For years these farmers, or yeomen as they were commonly called, had been used to growing just enough for what they needed and grew little in surplus. As one farmer explained “ My farm provides me and my family with a good living. Nothing we wear, eat, or drink was purchased, because my farm provides it all.”2 The only problem with this way of life is that with no surplus there was no way to make enough money to pay excessive debts. For example, since farmer possessed little money the merchants offered the articles they needed on short-term credit and accepted any surplus farm goods on a seasonal basis for payment. However if the farmer experienced a poor crop, shopkeepers usually extended credit and thereby tied the farmer to their businesses on a yearly basis.3 During a credit crisis, the gradual disintegration of the traditional culture became more apparent. During hard times, merchants in need of ready cash withdrew credit from their yeomen customers and called for the repayment of loans in hard cash. Such demands showed the growing power of the commercial elite.4 As one could imagine this brought much social and economic unrest to the farmers of New England. Many of the farmers in debt were dragged into court and in many cases they were put into debtors prison. Many decided to take action: The farmers waited for the legal due process as long as them could. The Legislature, also know as the General Court, took little action to address the farmers complaints. 5 “So without waiting for General Court to come back into session to work on grievances as requested, the People took matters into their own hands.”6 This is when the idea for the Rebellion is decided upon and the need for a leader was eminent.
5. Perry, Elisabeth Israels, and Karen Manners Smith. The Gilded Age and Progressive Era: a student companion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. Print.
Andrew Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland in 1835. His father, Will, was a weaver and a follower of Chartism, a popular movement of the British working class that called for the masses to vote and to run for Parliament in order to help improve conditions for workers. The exposure to such political beliefs and his family's poverty made a lasting impression on young Andrew and played a significant role in his life after his family immigrated to the United States in 1848. Andrew Carnegie amassed wealth in the steel industry after immigrating from Scotland as a boy. He came from a poor family and had little formal education.
Carnegie, Andrew. The Gospel of Wealth. 391st ed. Vol. 148. N.p.: North American Review, 1889. Print.
Ernst, Joseph Albert. Money and politics in America, 1755–1775; a study in the Currency act of
Andrew Carnegie believes in a system based on principles and responsibility. The system is Individualism and when everyone strives towards the same goals the system is fair and prosperous. Carnegie’s essay is his attempt to show people a way to reach an accommodation between individualism and fairness. This system can only work if everyone knows and participates in his or her responsibilities. I will discuss Carnegie’s thesis, his arguments and the possible results of his goals.
In the documents titled, William Graham Sumner on Social Darwinism and Andrew Carnegie Explains the Gospel of Wealth, Sumner and Carnegie both analyze their perspective on the idea on “social darwinism.” To begin with, both documents argue differently about wealth, poverty and their consequences. Sumner is a supporter of social darwinism. In the aspects of wealth and poverty he believes that the wealthy are those with more capital and rewards from nature, while the poor are “those who have inherited disease and depraved appetites, or have been brought up in vice and ignorance, or have themselves yielded to vice, extravagance, idleness, and imprudence” (Sumner, 36). The consequences of Sumner’s views on wealth and poverty is that they both contribute to the idea of inequality and how it is not likely for the poor to be of equal status with the wealthy. Furthermore, Carnegie views wealth and poverty as a reciprocative relation. He does not necessarily state that the wealthy and poor are equal, but he believes that the wealthy are the ones who “should use their wisdom, experiences, and wealth as stewards for the poor” (textbook, 489). Ultimately, the consequences of
Andrew Carnegie and Walter Rauschenbusch represent two opposing sides in the integration of Christian faith into society. Carnegie’s Gospel of Wealth stated that the rich must reinvest their earnings into social programs that would benefit the poor without providing excess money that would enable them to spend frivolously on items that would not actually improve their overall situation. In contrast, Rauschenbusch was more concerned with the physical well being of those in lower classes. Both men wrote their works as a moral response to the rapid changes industrialization produced in their economies; similarly, today’s economy is rapidly changing as a result of technological development. However, morality has struggled to keep up with the exponential advancement in technology, leaving people with little
The Gilded Age was a time period of rampant development in the American Economy with a policy that minimized the intervention of the government in economic matters. In the late 1800’s starting with railroads, small businesses evolved to the point where the nation’s economy was monopolized by wealthy industrialists and financiers.1 With all this control in the hands of few wealthy individuals critics began to point out several inequalities among Americans.
The Gilded Age is a period of volatile development in American trade and cultivation. Gilded Age government were conquered by fraud, as representatives took inducements and content their groups with posh management jobs. The three major problem happened in during Glided age was Currency Reform, Social Darwinism and political corruption. The Currency Reform is one of the most significant problem commerce with finances was that of Currency Reform. However the corruption was so common during glided age. However because of that City government administrated by dishonest machines like” New York's Tammany Hall”. The simple problem reposes about the idea that the quantity of money in flow controls its worth. However, it shared by that knowledge about l that money that was not supported by solid funds.
...y as “the root of all evil” would be too simplistic; what she suggests, rather, is that the distribution of wealth in mid-nineteenth-century America was uneven, and that those with money did little to effectively aid the workers whose exploitation made them rich in the first place. In her portrayals of Mitchell and the “Christian reformer” whose sermon Hugh hears (24), she even suggests that reformers, often wealthy themselves, have no useful perspective on the social ills they desire to reform. Money, she seems to suggest, provides for the rich a numbing comfort that distances them from the sufferings of laborers like Hugh: like Kirby, they see such laborers as necessary cogs in the economic machinery, rather than as fellow human beings whose human desires for the comfort, beauty, and kindness that money promises may drive them to destroy their own humanity.
Social Darwinism and The Gospel of Wealth were two late 19th century ideas that helped shape America’s views on social, economic, and political issues. The former applied the theory of natural selection to sociology and politics while the latter outlined a way for the country’s newly minted rich to redistribute their surplus wealth to the needy. Both concepts offer insight into the 1877-1900 period in American history known as the Gilded Age.