

Agrarian Justice by Thomas Paine - simonsarris
http://www.ssa.gov/history/paine4.html

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simonsarris
Sorry, I should have linked to the short summary first, if a mod wants to
delete this comment and edit the link to go to
<http://www.ssa.gov/history/tpaine3.html> instead, that would be grand.

The summary for you comment-first clickers:

> In the winter of 1795-96 Thomas Paine wrote his last great pamphlet,
> "Agrarian Justice." The pamphlet was first published in French in Paris. An
> English edition was brought out in 1797.

> In this pamphlet Paine advocated the creation of a social insurance scheme
> for the aged and for young people just starting out in life. The benefits
> were to be paid from a national fund accumulated for this purpose. The fund
> was to be financed by a 10% tax on inherited property. A tax on inherited
> property was used due to Paine's general philosophy of property rights.
> Although he based his social insurance scheme on a line of argument that
> might sound quaint in the present era, in other respects his plan was quite
> modern, recognizing the problem of income security for the elderly, and the
> desirability of creating a national fund for this purpose.

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kbenson
I've never actually had cause to read Tomas Paine before, but I'm finding I
like it very much. Thank you.

(I guess I had some _cause_ , but never enough to warrant any sort of
_effect_. Again, thanks for lowering the bar of entry enough that it was truly
hard to ignore).

