The second sentence of the preamble to the American Declaration of Independence from Great Britain begins:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,…”
Let’s stop right there for a moment and determine what that means. Isn’t it pretty plain that our founding fathers thought that everybody was an equal person.
Okay then, and I mean by this in economic way, when did it become fashionable to decide that some people were more equal than others?
A monetery system has one real purpose, and that is to equalize labor factors. It is difficult to determine equal value for a manufactured product without some sort of economic system. Should a shoemaker trade a pair of shoes for a pair of potatoes? How many gallons of milk should a dairy farmer trade for a pair of overalls? This is where an economic system enters the picture. A money value is established for a product, usually based on the amount of labor involved in producing the product. This establishes how many widgets should equal one gadget, or how many gadgets should equal a certain number of what-cha-ma-call-its.
If all men are created equal, then should not their labor also be equal? Whether valued in rupees, yen, or dollars, should not one human’s hour be of equal value to another person’s? Of course it should. How then did a professional athlete’s hour become valued at a million dollars while a dairy farmer’s is only valued at ten dollars? Why is a doctor’s hour considered more valuable than his patient’s?
When we are born we know not how many hours we have on this earth, but why are whatever their number not all equal to our fellow time travelers?
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