Mr. Jackson is running for Lt. Governor of Virginia...that may be good for the state of virginia but the rest of the states need him in the United States Senate...and maybe even in the White House!
Related... (Added by Storm'n Norm'n)
The following excerpted from:
Socialists, therefore, by endeavoring to transfer the possessions of individuals to the community at large, strike at the interests of every wage-earner, since they would deprive him of the liberty of disposing of his wages, and thereby of all hope and possibility of increasing his resources and of bettering his condition in life.
"...The discussion is not easy, nor is it void of danger. It is no easy matter to define the relative rights and mutual duties of the rich and of the poor, of capital and of labor. And the danger lies in this, that crafty agitators are intent on making use of these differences of opinion to pervert men's judgments and to stir up the people to revolt.
3. In any case we clearly
see, and on this there is general agreement, that some opportune remedy must be
found quickly for the misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the
majority of the working class: for the ancient workingmen's guilds were abolished in the
last century, and no other protective organization took their place. Public
institutions and the laws set aside the ancient religion. Hence, by degrees it
has come to pass that working men have been surrendered, isolated and helpless,
to the hardheartedness of employers and the greed of unchecked competition. The
mischief has been increased by rapacious usury, which, although more than once
condemned by the Church, is nevertheless, under a different guise, but with like
injustice, still practiced by covetous and grasping men. To this must be added
that the hiring of labor and the conduct of trade are concentrated in the hands
of comparatively few; so that a small number of very rich men have been able to
lay upon the teeming masses of the laboring poor a yoke little better than that
of slavery itself.
4. To remedy these wrongs the
socialists, working on the poor man's envy of the rich, are striving to do away
with private property, and contend that individual possessions should become the
common property of all, to be administered by the State or by municipal bodies.
They hold that by thus transferring property from private individuals to the
community, the present mischievous state of things will be set to rights,
inasmuch as each citizen will then get his fair share of whatever there is to
enjoy. But their
contentions are so clearly powerless to end the controversy that were they
carried into effect the working man himself would be among the first to suffer.
They are, moreover, emphatically unjust, for they would rob the lawful
possessor, distort the functions of the State, and create utter confusion in the
community.
5. It is surely
undeniable that, when a man engages in remunerative labor, the impelling reason
and motive of his work is to obtain property, and thereafter to hold it as his
very own. If one man hires out to another his strength or skill, he does so for
the purpose of receiving in return what is necessary for the satisfaction of his
needs; he therefore expressly intends to acquire a right full and real, not only
to the remuneration, but also to the disposal of such remuneration, just as he
pleases. Thus, if he lives sparingly, saves money, and, for greater security,
invests his savings in land, the land, in such case, is only his wages under
another form; and, consequently, a working man's little estate thus purchased
should be as completely at his full disposal as are the wages he receives for
his labor. But it is precisely in such power of disposal that ownership obtains,
whether the property consist of land or chattels. Socialists,
therefore, by endeavoring to transfer the possessions of individuals to the
community at large, strike at the interests of every wage-earner, since they
would deprive him of the liberty of disposing of his wages, and thereby of all
hope and possibility of increasing his resources and of bettering his condition
in life.
6. What is of far greater
moment, however, is the fact that the remedy they propose is manifestly against
justice. For, every man has by nature the right to
possess property as his own. This is one of the chief points of
distinction between man and the animal creation, for the brute has no power of
self direction, but is governed by two main instincts, which keep his powers on
the alert, impel him to develop them in a fitting manner, and stimulate and
determine him to action without any power of choice. One of these instincts is
self preservation, the other the propagation of the species. Both can attain
their purpose by means of things which lie within range; beyond their verge the
brute creation cannot go, for they are moved to action by their senses only, and
in the special direction which these suggest. But with man it is wholly
different. He possesses, on the one hand, the full perfection of the animal
being, and hence enjoys at least as much as the rest of the animal kind, the
fruition of things material. But animal nature, however perfect, is far from
representing the human being in its completeness, and is in truth but humanity's
humble handmaid, made to serve and to obey. It is the mind, or reason, which is
the predominant element in us who are human creatures; it is this which renders
a human being human, and distinguishes him essentially from the brute. And on
this very account - that man alone among the animal
creation is endowed with reason - it must be within his right to possess things
not merely for temporary and momentary use, as other living things do, but to
have and to hold them in stable and permanent possession; he must have not only
things that perish in the use, but those also which, though they have been
reduced into use, continue for further use in after time.
7. This becomes still
more clearly evident if man's nature be considered a little more deeply. For
man, fathoming by his faculty of reason matters without number, linking the
future with the present, and being master of his own acts, guides his ways under
the eternal law and the power of God, whose providence governs all things.
Wherefore, it is in his power to exercise his choice not only as to matters that
regard his present welfare, but also about those which he deems may be for his
advantage in time yet to come. Hence, man not only should possess the fruits of the
earth, but also the very soil, inasmuch as from the produce of the earth he has
to lay by provision for the future. Man's needs do not die out, but forever
recur; although satisfied today, they demand fresh supplies for tomorrow. Nature
accordingly must have given to man a source that is stable and remaining always
with him, from which he might look to draw continual supplies. And this stable
condition of things he finds solely in the earth and its fruits. There is no
need to bring in the State. Man
precedes the State, and possesses, prior to the formation of any State, the
right of providing for the substance of his
body.
8. The fact that God has given the earth for the use and enjoyment of the whole human race can in no way be a bar to the owning of private property. For God has granted the earth to mankind in general, not in the sense that all without distinction can deal with it as they like, but rather that no part of it was assigned to any one in particular, and that the limits of private possession have been left to be fixed by man's own industry, and by the laws of individual races."
8. The fact that God has given the earth for the use and enjoyment of the whole human race can in no way be a bar to the owning of private property. For God has granted the earth to mankind in general, not in the sense that all without distinction can deal with it as they like, but rather that no part of it was assigned to any one in particular, and that the limits of private possession have been left to be fixed by man's own industry, and by the laws of individual races."
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