Excerpt:
"We are encouraged to celebrate the 4th of July – which is rarely referred to anymore as Independence Day – probably because Americans have become such a dependent people. They do not, of course, like to think of themselves that way.

But aren’t they?

Benjamin Franklin, who was a key player in the struggle for independence from Great Britain, was an independent man by the time he was about 40. So also John Adams, who – along with Franklin and Jefferson – negotiated the alliance with France that secured American independence from Great Britain. Franklin and Adams and other men of that time could and did achieve independence for themselves via “industry,” or hard work and prudent action. Franklin began as an assistant in a printer’s shop and became the most successful publisher in the colonies, which made him a wealthy and independent man by early middle age. He was thus able to spend the rest of his long life pursuing his many interests. He did not have to worry about having to work because he had plenty of money to pay for his needs for the remainder of his life.

He had this money because the government didn’t take it."