Apart from all reflections of morality and philosophy, it is a melancholy fact that more than one-fourth of the labour of mankind is annually consumed by this barbarous system.
Thomas Paine: “Apart from all reflections of morality and philosophy, it is a melancholy fact that more than one-fourth of the labour…”
Editor's note · Context
Paine highlights the economic burden of uncivilized governmental systems, stating that they consume a significant portion of human labor.
Share
More from Thomas Paine
I have no idea, considering the reforms which are now passing and spreading throughout Europe, that England will permit herself to be the last; and where the occasion and the opportunity quietly offer, it is better than to wait for a…
I do not believe that any two men, on what are called doctrinal points, think alike who think at all.
When men unite in agreeing that a thing is good, could it be obtained, such for instance as relief from a burden of taxes and the extinction of corruption, the object is more than half accomplished.
In those which proceed from the former cause, the temper becomes incensed and soured; and the redress, obtained by danger, is too often sullied by revenge.