> The Founders of the United States did not invent the rights you refer to.
You're right, those rights are inalienable characteristics of humans. However, the US was the first to codify them into the founding document of a nation.
The states in the North had all ended slavery by 1804. Prosperity followed.
> The states in the North had all ended slavery by 1804. Prosperity followed.
And so did the Industrial Revolution. What's the causal mechanism that puts codifying the rights you mention, and quest for happiness, before prosperity? With industrialization, the possible mechanism is much more clear for it being the source of both prosperity and the ability for US to keep those rights codified over longer periods of time.
Industrialization only happened in free societies that recognized those rights.
Yes, I know about the forced industrialization in the USSR, but that failed to really deliver much to the civilians. It was mostly focused on military production. The US industrialization was so far ahead it provided not only the highest standard of living in the world, but enabled the US to fight simultaneous wars in both hemispheres, while supplying its allies (including the Soviet Union) with vast quantities of industrial products.
> is much more clear
Again, the industrialization of America happened after the rights were guaranteed, and only in the parts of America that were free.
You're right, those rights are inalienable characteristics of humans. However, the US was the first to codify them into the founding document of a nation.
The states in the North had all ended slavery by 1804. Prosperity followed.