On Wed, Jun 6, 2012 at 4:13 AM, William Conger <[email protected]>wrote:
> Re: Berg's comment below ..... > > > "But doesn't self-interest eventually evolve into special interests who try > to influence the decision-maker with money?" > > I reply: > > That seems to be the case nowadays but the USA Founding Fathers had the > notion > of Virtue, which to them meant that a moral sense of the good (good for the > country and good for all) would always trump excessive self interest. > Their > arguments were centered on scale. They believed that local situations in > society and commerce would exaggerate self interest at the expense, > sometimes, > of the larger society and thus a Federal government with a larger national > viewpoint would offset those local interests. Thus the 'narrow interest' > states were balanced against the central government. The early leaders > tended > to be rich, independent men who presumably couldn't be 'bought' by private > interests but of course they tended to represent 'property' interests > anyway, > but not as blatantly as today. Nobody talks about Virtue anymore in the > same > sense that the founding fathers imagined it.... When it comes to those virtuous Founding Fathers, the following may be of interest: - Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder. George Washington
