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Tag Archives: First Principles
First Principles: Tariffs Tend To Increase Prices For the Items Being Protected
“Measures which serve to abridge the free competition of foreign Articles, have a tendency to occasion an enhancement of prices.” – Alexander Hamilton (1791) While the purposes behind the tariffs might be well intended. The outcome is not very likely … Continue reading
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Tagged Alexander Hamilton, First Principles, Foreign Competition, Free Market, Free Trade, Measures, Price, Tariff
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First Principles: Laws Should Be Consistent and Easily Understood
“It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws … undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is today, can guess … Continue reading
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Tagged Consistent, Defined, First Principles, James Madison, Law, Rule, Steady, Understandable
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First Principles: Gun Control Laws Only Disarm The Law Abiding
“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms … disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes.” – Cesare Beccaria This from the quill of one of the greatest thinkers of the Enlightenment Period. Very little changes … Continue reading
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Tagged Cesare Beccaria, Criminal, Disarming, First Principles, Law, Law Abiding, Right to Bear Arms
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First Principles: What Is Inside A Person Matters More Than Appearance
“Do not conceive that fine Clothes make fine Men, any more than fine feathers make fine Birds.” – George Washington (1783) The worth of any person comes from what is inside not outward appearance. I cannot count the number of … Continue reading
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Tagged Appearance, Character, Conception, First Principles, George Washington, Substance, Vanity
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First Principles: A Nation Should Strive For Wisdom and Virtue In Its Example
“Happy will it be for ourselves, and most honorable for human nature, if we have wisdom and virtue enough to set so glorious an example to mankind!” – Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 36, 1788
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Tagged Alexander Hamilton, Example, First Principles, Happiness, Honor, Human Nature, The Federalist Papers, Virtue, Wisdom
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First Principles: Heavy Taxation Leads To Wretchedness and Oppression
“The fore horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follow that, and in its turn wretchedness and oppression.” – Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Samuel Kerchival, 1816 The correct thing to do about many of the issues touted as … Continue reading
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Tagged Amendment, Consitution, First Principles, Heavy Taxes, Misery, Oppression, Public Debt, Samuel Kerchival, Thomas Jefferson
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First Principles: Encroachments On Liberty Often Have Small Beginnings
“The people of the U.S. owe their Independence & their liberty, to the wisdom of descrying in the minute tax of 3 pence on tea, the magnitude of the evil comprised in the precedent. Let them exert the same wisdom, … Continue reading
First Principles: The Right To Freedom Is God Given and Cannot Be Given Up
“If men … give up any essential natural right, the eternal law of reason and the great end of society, would absolutely vacate such renunciation; the right to freedom being the gift of God Almighty, it is not in the … Continue reading
First Principles: Secrecy Should Not Be A Regular System of Government
“Secrecy, being an instrument of conspiracy, ought never to be the system of a regular government.” -Jeremy Bentham, jurist and philosopher (15 Feb 1748-1832) While I recognize we are borrowing another country’s philosopher to illustrate a valid point, it is, … Continue reading
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Tagged Conspiracy, First Principles, Governance, Government, Instrument, Jeremy Bentham, Secrecy
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First Principles: Heresies In Politics and Religion Are Rarely Cured By Persecution
“In politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution.” – Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 1 (1787) … Continue reading
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