Excerpt
Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general Favor; a long Habit of not thinking a Thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of Custom. But the Tumult soon subsides. Time makes more Converts than Reason.
~ Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1775)
Thomas Jefferson. George Washington. James Madison. These names come to mind when we remember the American Revolution—and for good reason. Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence. Washington defeated the British at Yorktown. Madison drafted the Constitution. They are America’s Founding Fathers. Our cultural icons. Heroes.
The Founding Fathers were adored in life and glorified in death: we carved their faces in stone, and adorned our currency with their images. So too are the Revolution’s heroes, like Paul Revere or Benjamin Franklin, immortalized in the highest art and lowest folklore—with one exception—Thomas Paine. When Paine died just six people attended his funeral, despite America owing him her very existence.
In 1775 Thomas Paine published Common Sense, in which he made the “for dummies” case for revolution. His work spread like wildfire, becoming the Revolution’s rallying cry. The pamphlet sold over 500,000 copies within the first year, and to this day it remains the most popular work written by any American author. Why was Common Sense so popular?
In short: simplicity. Paine took lofty philosophies and summarized them in plain English—the sort of plain English that men with jobs and families—men who did not have years to waste naval-gazing—could understand. He spoke to the common man about the common good. In the end, Pain’s simple words convinced more men to fight for freedom than did Jefferson’s imperious logic or Franklin’s obsequious rhetorical flourishes.
This book is Common Sense for economics.
I say this for two reasons. First, this book takes complicated economic concepts and makes them simple. After reading this book you will know why America’s economy is bad, and how we can fix it.
Second—and more importantly—this book is a battle-cry. America used to be a land of opportunity. A land where parents—for perhaps the first time in human history—knew that their children would live in a country that was richer than the one they grew up in. That was the essence of the American Dream.
The American Dream is dead. Today our cities crumble around us, while the huddled masses search for jobs that no longer exist. Millions of good-paying factory jobs moved to Mexico and China. We are poorer today than we were yesterday—and things are only getting worse.
These facts should upset you. They should make you mad. Furious. This is a blessing. As St. Augustine said, anger can give us the energy we need to right wrongs; to fix what is broken. So long as we have anger, we have hope.
Reshore: How Tariffs Will Bring Our Jobs Home & Revive the American Dream is now available on Amazon or through Calamo Press.
