The Declaration of Independence and Capitalism [ZT]

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The Declaration of Independence and Capitalism
May 14, 2009 by Max M.
Filed under Featured

Before it was edited by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, the original draft of the Declaration of Independence stated that, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty and property." Fearing that the slave owning states would use the reference to property as justification for holding slaves, the word property was replaced by "pursuit of happiness," in the final draft. While their motivations may have been well-founded and even wise in its time, the original three words penned by Thomas Jefferson in 1776 form the core of the capitalist ideal.

Life, in the context of the Declaration of Independence, carries with it not only the connotation of the right to exist, but also denotes the right to live that life to its fullest extent and for that life to be under the sole and complete ownership of the individual to which it was given. Only in a purely capitalistic society can man be said to truly own his own life. In any state where capitalism is not practiced fully, a man’s life is owned in full or in part by the state. Consider the modern world. It is controlled either by states with socialist-collectivist economic and political ideologies, by semi-theocracies or by some form of tribalism. There is not among them even one truly capitalist society. Yet, it is only through capitalism that man can be truly free and the master of his own destiny.

Liberty, as used in the Declaration of Independence means that man has the unalienable right to act according to his own rational judgment. Man, stripped bare, is one of the most poorly-suited animals for survival. He does not have a coat of fur to protect him from the sun or from the cold. He does not posses slashing claws or sharp fangs to help him kill prey. Niether is he gifted with legs fleet enough to outrun the predators who view him as food. Instead, man was endowed with the largest brain relative to his size of any animal on the planet. It is his only resource. His rational and proper use of it his only salvation. It is, therefore, through the power of mind and only through the power of mind that man has managed to survive long enough to create new generations of men. However, man’s mind only functions to its fullest potential when it is free to do so and allowed to act in accordance with the purpose for which it evolved — his self-interest which is his survival.

Property, which was the word dropped from that important sentence of the first draft of the Declaration of Independence connotes that man has a right to own things. Among the things which he owns, first and foremost he owns himself, also those things which he creates through his vision and imagination, through his toil and his inspiration and those things which he has acquired through trade of value for value with other free men. Those things which he owns, no other man may take from him absent his permission, either through stealth, violence or through threat of violence. Without the concept of private property, neither capitalism nor freedom are possible.

Pursuit of Happiness, as used in the final draft of the Declaration of Independence, does not mean that man has the right to happiness, but that he has the right to make the choices through rational thought and judgement, that he believes will lead to his happiness. The pursuit of happiness flows directly from and is dependent upon each man’s ability to live his life to its fullest capacity, to have the liberty to choose his own path and to be secure in the fruits of his labor and to act in his own self-interest. The practice of capitalism, is in fact synonymous with the pursuit of happiness. In a free market men are free to produce whatever they believe that other men may value and to freely trade the product of their enterprise with other men for something of value without the interference of other parties. As noted by Supreme Court Justice, Stephen Johnson Field in 1883, "Among these inalienable rights, as proclaimed in that great document, is the right of men to pursue their happiness, by which is meant the right to pursue any lawful business or vocation, in any manner not inconsistent with the equal rights of others, which may increase their prosperity or develop their faculties, so as to give to them their highest enjoyment."

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