Men are daily growing poor by the very means that they take to get rich; for in the same proportion that the prices of all goods on hand are raised, the value of all money laid by is reduced.
Thomas Paine: “Men are daily growing poor by the very means that they take to get rich; for in the same proportion that the prices of…”
Editor's note · Context
From "The American Crisis," this passage describes the paradox of inflation where attempts to get rich lead to widespread impoverishment.
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I have carefully avoided to enlarge upon the subject, because I am inclined to believe that what is called the present ministry, wish to see contentions about religion kept up, to prevent the nation turning its attention to subjects of…
As to what are called national religions, we may, with as much propriety, talk of national Gods.
Reason and discussion, persuasion and conviction, become the weapons in the contest, and it is only when those are attempted to be suppressed that recourse is had to violence.
But as religion is very improperly made a political machine, and the reality of it is thereby destroyed, I will conclude this work with stating in what light religion appears to me.