Happy 4th of July

Arguably one of the most momentous events in the history of civilization must be the declaration of independence by the 13 British colonies of North America on July 4th, 1776. It transformed the world in ways that could not have been imagined by those who declared independence and fought for it.

Here are some details about the declaration from the wiki (lightly edited):

The Declaration of Independence is the founding document of the United States. It was adopted on July 4, 1776. The declaration explains to the world why the thirteen colonies regarded themselves as independent sovereign states no longer subject to British colonial rule.

The Declaration of Independence was signed by 56 delegates to the Second Continental Congress, who came to be known as the nation’s Founding Fathers. The 56 included delegates from New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The declaration became one of the most circulated and widely reprinted documents in early American history.

The second paragraph of the declaration begins with one of the most memorable lines in English of modern times:

“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 the pursuit of Happiness.”

The rest of that paragraph is awesome:

“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

The important point to note is that it demands as a duty that despotic and tyrannical governments must be overthrown. But of course, the government would justifiably consider the revolutionaries as traitors — which King George III did. The 56 signers of the declaration were British subjects turned traitors.

What they did was exemplary. The declaration ends thusly:

“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”

These people had a lot to lose: their lives and their fortunes. Paul Harvey talks about those 56 “Founding Fathers” who pledged their sacred honor because they held that liberty was more important than security:

With that, dear readers, I wish you a very happy July 4th.

 

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Author: Atanu Dey

Economist.

16 thoughts on “Happy 4th of July”

    1. A malcontent writing a stupid piece on Al Jazeera?!! I’m shocked, you hear, I am shocked.

      Yes, the US government is hypocritical in many more ways than just immigration; the really serious matter has to be with the non-stop wars that it engages in. For all the faults of their government, Americans are one of the most tolerant and decent people. At least their ideals are high. Certainly, they fall short of their ideals but can one name a country better than the US in terms of welcoming immigrants?

      The reality that the author of that article sees is severely distorted because of leftist ideology. A lot of really good analysts have written about the US’s immigration and race relations. Try Thomas Sowell, or even Douglas Murray.

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        1. Indeed this is shocking. I think this stolen land must be returned to their original owners. Native tribes must do a comprehensive survey of which tribe owned which land and how they came into possession of it. For example how did Navajo’s got their land ? Did they settle it themselves or did they take it by force from some other tribe like Pueblo?

          As soon as we find the original owners we must return the land to them.

          Also, Ben and Jerry should not be allowed to profit from selling ice cream to thieves. Their ice creams must be limited only to reservation land.

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          1. Yes Sir. Excellent point.
            That’s why we Brits can’t return the Kohinoor diamond to the poor Indians.
            They need to sort out who owns it with Pakistan, Afghanistan, etc etc..all claiming
            Lovely… so we own it for display on William’s crown next….

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    2. That is a wonderful piece by Prof. Donald Earl Collins ! I mean those thousands of asylum seekers from India, Mexico, Honduras, Brazil, Haiti, Cuba etc. are OBVIOUSLY fallen prey to the propaganda that USA is a country worth living into.

      Prof. Collins should meet President Trump. Tell him that boarder wall is a stupid idea. Instead just put up billboards in south America about the horrors of being in USA. The traffic jams of LA, the green house gas emitting F150s, crashing Teslas, making you fat burgers and so on.

      Once those Nicaraguans and Cubans see that reality they will give up that journey.

      It goes without saying that Prof. Collins must have given up his citizenship and might have settled in a better peaceful country like Botswana or Rwanda by now.

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      1. Maybe Prof Collins is trying to point out that the American dream is a con for the majority of the migrants who arrive in the US. It prob explains why over 40m have no basic health cover.
        However, there is no doubt that there are opportunities in a thriving country like the US.
        But this applies to Europe as well where millions of migrants are dying to enter…for free health and education mainly? Maybe they should be sent to Saudi or India?

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        1. Maybe Prof Collins is trying to point out that the American dream is a con for the majority of the migrants who arrive in the US.

          Yes, that is exactly my point. Prof. Collins is a hero and he should totally work with both Biden and Trump to put up billboards in Mexico rather than wall to border patrol.

          If I am being conned, all I need to know that I am being conned to avoid taking that path. Letting those Honduran or El Salvador migrants know that Anthem or Kaiser is not going to cover them in USA will most certainly help them decide to stay back.

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  2. Hey Atanu, I am a long-term reader of your work. I’ve been reading since I was 19, and now I am 32. I have also read your book, and I learned a lot about capitalism, freedom, individuality, and free markets from your work. But now, at 32, I am also learning more about climate change, wealth inequality, and the limits of capitalism to redistribute wealth. I feel your assessment has been very one-sided.

    I even left a comment once about your beliefs on climate change, and you just brushed me off as a leftist SJW and left a note for me “to do better” without any real answers as to whether you do not believe in the science or what exactly you believe in. Do you think the IPCC is just a leftist propaganda machine?

    You also seem to miss the mark on how meritocracy works and think that the world is indeed a meritocracy. Without understanding that for one to be meritocratic, you need a certain level of upbringing, genetic intelligence, and wealth. All those things are not in the control of the individual and mostly come down to luck.

    You also seem to be very in awe of the American Revolution and words like liberty and freedom. You seem to think that just because America had freedom, they were able to create the science and technology that has changed the world, which is what I think you are referring to in your first paragraph in this post.

    But now there is enough information out there to know that most of the Silicon Valley revolution came from publicly funded research and universities, which were then privatized for companies to make personal profit in the name of capitalism. The Internet, GPS, and the Amazon Kindle digital ink technology are some examples.

    I also invite you to watch some of the Majority Report interviews where Sam Sedar debates libertarian callers in real-time. They seem to be wanting a world that you are so fond of, without government regulations, complete free markets, and a lack of welfare, etc.

    You can just do youtube search for sam sedar debates libertarians.

    He also had 2 great interviews from the author of how capitalism ends and the book Survival of the Richest. Invite you to peruse those as well..

    how capitalism ends:

    Survival of the richest:

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    1. Thanks for your comment, the rant writer. You make several points. I would like to address them. It may take a bit of time. For now, I will make a few quick observations — and elaborate on them later.

      I am glad that you are interested in the topics you mention in your comment. You are indeed lucky that you began so early. Until I started my PhD studies in economics in my late 30s, I had absolutely zero understanding of economics. If someone had asked me to explain why a demand curve slopes downward, I would have replied, “What’s a demand curve?” Ignorance at its extreme. It was not that I held wrong ideas; I had NO ideas. It wasn’t that I preferred socialism over capitalism; I did not know what they were.

      But then, it is possible that my ignorance worked in my favor. I had few preconceived notions. I came to the discipline with an open mind and with only one simple question — why is India such a desperately poor country?

      Economics taught me how to think. The subject matter of economics is secondary; the primary learning relates to the process of investigation, how to think rigorously about something.

      Many people are interested in economic matters and do their best to understand them, but most don’t know economics, and consequently they end up with wrong conclusions. They are not stupid. They are well-intentioned and sincere.

      Now, it could be that I am being arrogant and judgemental about people who did not spend decades learning economics. But that’s not it. I am genuinely interested in helping others who wish to learn the basic principles. Fortunately, the basic principles are few. The consistent application of those is sufficient to explain quite a bit of the world.

      More later.

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      1. This is the exact type of response I was expecting from you – some type of intellectual masturbation with no real response to any of the specific issues being raised.

        In fact, you did the same thing in your AMA. I asked a variation of this same question, and you simply ignored it.

        It seems like you just see economics as an intellectual exercise and only the numbers and GDP matters, and not the societal outcomes. And one thing I’m certain of is that you definitely view economics outside of morality and ethics. I’ve read a post where you said something along the lines of just because humans have an innate sense of equality doesn’t mean we should apply it to economics and markets.

        In your worldview, it seems it’s not a problem if Bezos spends 500 million on a yacht, and then takes a pointless trip to space for $5 billion for 4 mins(he was not even needed there lol), and billionaires are building bunkers to escape collapse, while 70% of Americans (the land you’re so fawning over) are unable to afford a $400 emergency. For you, this is not a problem of capitalism but a problem of these specific people being greedy, which you view as rooted in their own psyche rather than in the systemic nature of markets.

        It’s just like the fucking ghouls at the Cato Institute put in their libertarian newsletters – “sometimes the poor will die just because they are poor, and that’s okay.” (it was cato or some other think tank, but that’s ok they wouldn’t mind this lol)

        And let’s talk about India – good that you brought that up. I feel you suffer from the same PTSD (for lack of a better word) that most Indians go through all their lives living under incompetent corrupt blood sucking govts. Then one day, you land in the US for your MS and see the wealth and the freeways, and boom, suddenly in your head, it’s proof that just because India was ruined by its successive governments, the government must be the problem.

        This was certainly a great pull for me towards libertarianism in my youth – I mean, fuck government, Mumbai still can’t build proper fucking roads that can last a single monsoon, if we only just privatize them, right?

        And then I read your posts about how much you hate monotheistic religions but proudly declare yourself some weird combination of Hindu atheism. LOL.

        Once again, you have failed to apply culture to how governments function and the norms it creates. You hate that India’s growth was mocked as the “Hindu rate of growth,” but maybe there is some truth to it, don’t you think? How can you be blind to the absolute superstitions Hinduism demands from its adherents? Don’t you think that is something that shapes people into becoming corrupt fucking monsters once they get the reigns of power in a government position?

        Go listen to this right-wing Joe Rogan wannabe called BeerBiceps on youtube, watch how he platforms these Hindu tantra experts who now have a huge following to learn the art of vashikaran. Vashikaran gives you the power to gain control of another person to have sex with them or make them do your bidding, and it seems gods like Shiva and Durga help you do that.

        Here is a religious belief that says God himself will help you rape and loot a person if you spend a few thousand hours of your life chanting to them. Jeez wonder why the govt is so corrupt! And compare that to govts in societies who believe in the hippie dude telling them to love their neighbors.

        I am not making any of this up, and this is not even about Hinduism. I know most hindus laugh at this the way I mock christians around me asking them to convert water to wine like jesus did.

        But if you cannot account for how this affects culture and outcomes in how governments perform, then you are sorely missing the point.

        Governments don’t function in a vacuum; they are an outcome of the cultural values of society, and India has a lot of work to do in that regard. If you think shoving capitalism down their throats is suddenly going to turn India into a superpower, you are very delusional. What you are going to get is a system where the richest businessmen control the economy and slavery wages.

        I wonder what your views are on recent stories like UPS drivers getting cameras in their trucks but no air conditioning and dying from heat strokes at work, or Starbucks not letting people form unions, or CEO pay increasing by 900% in the last few decades while wages have only gone up by 32% or productivity rising by 232% while wages have stagnated at around 22%. The 8 hour work day and 5 hour work week themselves are all won by socialists in the last 200 years.

        But then again, you don’t bother answering questions in what you call an AMA, so I’m not really expecting any answers here either.

        But one can only hope that the next 20-year-old who lands on your blog reads this comment and perhaps will do some more thinking before reaching the delusional conclusion that minimum wage and healthcare will bring about Stalinism in the world.

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  3. Truths on both sides of the two arguments…
    This old clip attempts to identify some. But no easy solutions.

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  4. Squeeze as much juice out of the Fourth of July, would you, you [of course RSS-inducted [probably Indian Army Brat]] Brahmin?

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    1. Well, “dr.anandan”, you reveal yourself to be sad, bitter man through your brief comment in which you pack a great deal of bile. You think “Brahmin” is a put-down, an epithet that damns whom you dislike? It isn’t. It’s a mark of honor, a state of being that has to be earned and deserved. Seek help if you can. Goodbye.

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    2. Is it necessary for any personal insults here?

      Atanu has been hosting this website for a number of years and although I may not have agreed with him on several of his views, they have usually expanded the knowledge of many people who read them. His spectrum of reading is wide indeed and we are lucky he takes time and effort to try and explore ideas.

      There must be a place for pluralism and if we need to contest views, we should try and do it based on facts and logic rather than bashing each other with personal insults.

      Carry on the hard work Atanu!

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