Henry Ward Beecher Quotes
If you attempt to beat a man down and to get his goods for less than a fair price, you are attempting to commit burglary, as much as though you broke into his shop to take the things without paying for them.
Beecher, Henry Ward. Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit. D. Appleton and Company, 1887.
He was a string libertarian who opposed taxation.
The Virginia Colonial Governor returned to England to protest the economics of the tobacco trade and the monopolies that then prevailed:
Ingersoll was considered to be the greatest orator and political thinker of his day, but his overt atheistic views curtailed his elected political career.
This Hadith together with the Prophet’s probation on interest appears to preclude a capitalistic economic structure. However, Muslim institutions have been very creative in interpreting these admonitions. Some Muslims give this a modern interpretation which prohibits price gouging but not fair profit. Regardless, it has always been interpreted to apply only to business transactions between Muslims. Profit can be made on trading and commerce with non-Muslims, and Muslim traders have always spanned the globe.
50 years later a similar phrase was made famous be anarchist Pierre Joseph Proudhon.
Often referred to as “The Dean of Black Historians.”
The States sold bonds to finance the Revolutionary War. Some states had better prospects for redeeming their bonds than others. Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina in particular had poorer prospects than most and their bonds were selling at about 25 cents on the dollar. Alexander Hamilton, then the Secretary of the Treasury, wanted the new Federal government to assume the state’s war debt and pay off the bonds. He made his proposal for how he would accomplish this on January 14, 1790. He delivered his report and proposal to Congress “Report on the Public Credit”. As soon as Hamilton’s proposal was read in Congress, sophisticated speculators set off for the Southern States to buy up as many bonds as they could before the owners found out that a Federal bail-out was under serious consideration. They could easily double, triple or even quadruple their money. To Jackson this was gross immorality. Other representatives had a different point of view. See {619928} & {619929}.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910. The nature of telephone technology made it easy for companies to obtain monopolies for different areas of the country. When there is a monopoly, there is a huge tendency for the controlling company to charge very high prices and have poor customer service as the usual competition required for quality performance under capitalism is nonexistant. So in 1890, there was the same resentment of the telephone companies, that existed over a century later when there was still a monopoly. Regulation helped somewhat, but the capabilities of the monopolist began to include lobbying and campaign contributions so that typically, in the 21st century, the local telephone companies had much control over the State Commissions that were supposed to regulate them. Long distance service, whose monopoly was broken up by the Federal Courts became a wonderful service for customers and the prices were a tiny fraction of what they had been under their old monopoly.
Henry Ward Beecher was an American Congregationalist clergyman, social reformer, and speaker, known for his support of the abolition of slavery, his emphasis on God's love, and his 1875 adultery trial. His rhetorical focus on Christ's love has influenced mainstream Christianity to this day.
