Issue 7: Was the Constitution of the United States Written to Protect the Economic Interests of the Upper Classes? According to radical historian Howard Zinn, the Founding Fathers were an elite group of northern money interests and southern slaveholders who used Shay’s Rebellion in Massachusetts as a pretext to create a strong central government, which protected the property rights of the rich to the exclusion of slaves, Indians, and non-property-holding whites. Zinn uses an excerpt from historian George Bancroft to explain his reasoning. Bancroft basically said that the Constitution left out individuals and favored certain classes. Zinn also uses an excerpt from historian Charles Beard to explain his reasoning.
Their core desire is to help individuals regain control of their lives. In the modern era, it’s easy to tell people feel entitled to things from the world. Libertarians believe it’s a man (or woman’s) right and responsibility to make their own decisions and run their own lives with
Many intellectuals during the Enlightenment explored new ideas in political economy; Adam Smith in his 1776 An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations was one of the most influential figures for the Americans. Smith admitted the mercantile system worked, yet criticized its principles. Expounding a doctrine of individualism, Smith was one of many voices stating that the economy, like the individual, should be free from detailed regulation from the state. Economic, as well as individual, self-interest and its outcome in the market should be allowed to function without state regulation. Although it was indeed approved by the First Continental Congress, the practice of mercantilism was replaced with a Smith-oriented form of liberalism in post-Revolutionary
As the secretary of Treasury, Alexander Hamilton was responsible for forming the economy and it was his strategy for the nation to be secure and prosperous. In order to perform his operation, his level of knowledge would be the self- guide that gave him the ability. As George Washington’s previous military aide and financier, he was the architect who structured his department. From the looks of what the world became in 1789, Alexander Hamilton came up with a blue print to restructure it. However, the purpose of this research is to prove that Hamilton’s plan to reshape the economy didn’t work.
Like with most everything else, money and power influenced European Imperialism. Nationalism and racism were also factors in the New Imperialism during the 19th century all the way up to the first world war. Free trade was established and the old mercantile system faded away. No country took more advantage of the new free trade system than Britain. And this same idea still exists today.
Murphy describes Capitalism “as a system in which people are free to use their private property without outside interference” (Murphy, p. 1). It is also known to be referred to as a “free market” simply because it gives people the option to make their own decisions. This idea can be summed up in the phrase “laissez-faire”. The idea is that society contains within itself the capacity for ordering and managing its own path of development. “It follows that people should enjoy the liberty to manage their own lives, associate as they please, exchange with anyone and everyone, own and accumulate property and otherwise be creative by state expansion into their lives” (Tucker, n.p.).
Theodore Roosevelt stood politically as a progressive, and did not move America to large scale corporate capitalism; he in fact tried to do the opposite. He strongly believed that the government had the right to regulate big business to protect the welfare of society. Roosevelt believed that the government should be a trustee for the American people, by controlling and supervising the economy in public interest. Roosevelt altered the government by committing it to providing at least minimal assistance to the poor and unemployed; to protecting the rights of labor unions; to stabilizing the banking system; to building low-income housing; to regulating financial markets; to subsidizing agricultural production; and to doing many other things that had not previously been federal responsibilities. Theodore Roosevelt created what he called, “The Square Deal.” The Square Deal is a domestic program formed upon three basic ideas: conservation of natural resources, control of corporations, and consumer protection.
It is important to remember that a loyal customer can be just as valuable than new one. This is because you do not have to spend as much time and money marketing to them because they already know what you offer them. And it goes beyond just having customers that are satisfied, you need to have customers that are loyal. Loyal customers tend to buy more and more importantly they talk more which means a whole load of free word of mouth advertising for your business or company. Therefore building a highly loyal customer base should be the foundation of your basic business strategy.
He called for the government to take a “hands off” role in economics (“laissez faire”). In essence, he tried to apply the natural liberty idea to economics. His idea was that what is good for the individual will be good for society because laws of supply and demand will work out naturally through an “invisible hand.” He argued that government has a place in the judiciary, the military, and the policing system but not in the economy. A less-studied, though also important, aspect of Smith’s thinking was his view of history and his attempt to apply scientific observation to history. He and others in the Scottish leg of the Enlightenment came up with the idea that history progresses in four distinct stages: 1) hunting 2) pasturage 3) agriculture and 4) commerce.
Progressivism had been growing the last decades, as it had roots deep in American society, and the New Deal shared many aspects with Progressive ideals. Even though the Progressive and New Dealers had different core problems and wished to accomplish different things in different time frames, they shared “a far greater willingness than had been seen in previous American history to make use of the machinery of government to meet the needs of the people and supplement the workings of the national economy” (Hofstadter 302). Therefore the New Deal did have some resonance in American minds. It resonated further because before Roosevelt took office “a silent revolution had taken place in public opinion…the federal government was to be