It is a reproach to any government to waste such an immensity of revenue in sinecures and nominal and unnecessary places and officers, and not allow even a decent livelihood to those on whom the labour falls.
Paine condemns governments that squander public funds on unnecessary positions while failing to provide adequate support for those who perform essential labor.
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More from Thomas Paine
The argument changes from hereditary rights to hereditary wisdom; and the question is, Who is the wisest man?
They had a cause at stake, on which depended their freedom or their slavery.
The American constitutions were to liberty what a grammar is to language: they define its parts of speech, and practically construct them into syntax.