Class Warfare and Ben Franklin

With all of the political talk these days about "class warfare," I thought it would be interesting to examine what Ben Franklin had to say in his pamphlet "Information to Those Who Would Remove to America." Written in 1784, the essay was intended as information for Europeans whose view of American society was distorted by persistent rumors of vast wealth and limitless opportunity for those born into a life of privilege in Europe. America, he maintained, did not need those talented in "Belles-Lettres" or "fine Arts," and would give no deference to "Persons of Family" and "Gentlemen,doing nothing of Value, but living idly on the labour of others." Instead, America valued the working man, the farmer, craftsman or mechanic who provided useful products and services for society.

He writes: "It is imagined by Numbers that the Inhabitants of North-America are rich, capable of rewarding, and dispos'd to reward all sorts of Ingenuity; that they are at the same time ignorant of all the Sciences; & consequently that strangers possessing Talents in the Belles-Letters, fine Arts, etc., must be highly esteemed, and so well paid as to become easily rich themselves.that there are also abundance of profitable Offices to be disposed of, which the Natives are not qualified to fill; and that having few Persons of Family among them, Strangers of Birth must be greatly respected, and of course easily obtain the best of those Offices, which will make all their Fortunes."

This image is simply not true, he says: "These are all wild Imaginations; and those who go to America with Expectations founded upon them, will surely find themselves disappointed." No, he says, America is a country with "few people so miserable as the poor of Europe," and few people who would be considered rich by European standards. Instead, America is dominated by a middle class, "it is rather a general happy Mediocrity that prevails."

No doubt, Franklin was happy with this kind of America. Franklin was not born into wealth, but had to work and use his native abilities for any success he achieved. He was suspicious of those who were born into wealth or who had inherited a title. He argued against such an aristocracy in America and even favored taxes that would limit land and wealth being passed down from generation to generation.