Wednesday - January 17, 2007
Equality of Property
I recently listened
to Daniel's Webster's Plymouth
Oration, given on the anniversary of the landing at Plymouth Rock. In
this speech he made the following
point:
"Our ancestors began their system of government here under a condition of comparative equality in regard to wealth, and their early laws were of a nature to favor and continue this equality. A republican form of government rests not more on political constitutions, than on those laws which regulate the descent and transmission of property. Governments like ours could not have been maintained, where property was holden according to the principles of the feudal system; nor, on the other hand, could the feudal constitution possibly exist with us. Our New England ancestors brought hither no great capitals from Europe; and if they had, there was nothing productive in which they could have been invested. They left behind them the whole feudal policy of the other continent. They broke away at once from the system of military service established in the Dark Ages, and which continues, down even to the present time, more or less to affect the condition of property all over Europe."
Americans, though, have routinely acted to eliminate this state of equality of property, leading to political strife and conflict. The early settlers could hold only limited property because they had no means by which to use more. A family could only farm so many acres or work so many hours at a craft, so they didn't squabble with their neighbors over property if both had as much as they could work. But as some citizens gained wealth they invested in slaves and used them to increase their property's potential value. Webster gave his speech in 1820, so he didn't know how the situation changed following the Civil War. Without slavery, America could not long remain unindustrialized, and industrialization allowed even grater consolidation of property than slavery did, further removing us from the idillic state Webster describes. The trend has continued through the present day, with a brief respite in the 1950s thanks to a massive post-war increase in the middle class, where large corporations have consolidated property to the point that they outclass even the wealthiest of private citizens, creating a social order akin to feudal systems.
Given that we are so far from a state of true equality, what would be an effective solution? To date, I have never seen one implemented nor heard one proposed that could bring true, stable political equality into the world.
"Our ancestors began their system of government here under a condition of comparative equality in regard to wealth, and their early laws were of a nature to favor and continue this equality. A republican form of government rests not more on political constitutions, than on those laws which regulate the descent and transmission of property. Governments like ours could not have been maintained, where property was holden according to the principles of the feudal system; nor, on the other hand, could the feudal constitution possibly exist with us. Our New England ancestors brought hither no great capitals from Europe; and if they had, there was nothing productive in which they could have been invested. They left behind them the whole feudal policy of the other continent. They broke away at once from the system of military service established in the Dark Ages, and which continues, down even to the present time, more or less to affect the condition of property all over Europe."
Americans, though, have routinely acted to eliminate this state of equality of property, leading to political strife and conflict. The early settlers could hold only limited property because they had no means by which to use more. A family could only farm so many acres or work so many hours at a craft, so they didn't squabble with their neighbors over property if both had as much as they could work. But as some citizens gained wealth they invested in slaves and used them to increase their property's potential value. Webster gave his speech in 1820, so he didn't know how the situation changed following the Civil War. Without slavery, America could not long remain unindustrialized, and industrialization allowed even grater consolidation of property than slavery did, further removing us from the idillic state Webster describes. The trend has continued through the present day, with a brief respite in the 1950s thanks to a massive post-war increase in the middle class, where large corporations have consolidated property to the point that they outclass even the wealthiest of private citizens, creating a social order akin to feudal systems.
Given that we are so far from a state of true equality, what would be an effective solution? To date, I have never seen one implemented nor heard one proposed that could bring true, stable political equality into the world.