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A few hundred years ago people came to America with nothing. They were starving, diseased, and absolutely poor. They busted ass and eked out a better existence

A few hundred years ago people came to America with nothing. They were starving, diseased, and absolutely poor. They busted ass and eked out a better existence every generation. These cities didn't just magically pop into existence it's the product of hard work and being a good person and citizen. Don't throw trash on the ground, don't cheat people in business, look out for others and your family. From my travels I have seen most places have horrible corruption where it's hard to make it as a honest person. A huge part of the overall prosperity of the US is from the fact that nobody is a king, with hard work you can make it. Instead of putting people down try and help lift everyone up. There is a lot of hardship on Earth that I would give anything to fix. I can only do my best to be a good person and treat others well and hopefully if we all do the same our grandchildren will be that much closer to paradise.

eesmith 7y ago
Please don't romanticize history. Certainly some were "starving, diseased, and absolutely poor". But many were funded colonists. And, "Between the 1630s and the American Revolution, one-half to two-thirds of white immigrants to the Thirteen Colonies arrived under indentures" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indentured_servitude_in_the_Americas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indentured_servitude_in_the_Am... "These cities didn't just magically pop into existence it's the product of hard work and being a good person and citizen." Oklahoma City did "pop into existence". Within 12 hours of noon, April 22, 1889, it had a population of 10,000 people. But you're right, it wasn't "magic" - it was the product of kicking Native Americans off the land and giving it to white people in the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889. That highlights how your narrative omits a couple of other sources of prosperity in the American experience: - living in areas that the Native American population had already settled - slavery
- imtringued 7y ago
  The states that employed slaves were actually the least competitive. Having a high supply of workers that you don't care about leads to complacency.
  - eesmith 7y ago
    Your comment seems almost unrelated to the topic, so could you explain your point further? 300 years ago, Boston and Newport were important slave ports, and "In Rhode Island colony, as much as two-thirds of the merchant fleet and a similar fraction of sailors were engaged in slave traffic." - http://slavenorth.com/profits.htm http://slavenorth.com/profits.htm "Slavery was very substantial in early Manhattan. Very early on, the populations of enslaved people began to grow. By 1740, enslaved people were one-fifth of the population of the early city, and enslaved black men were one-third of the work force." - from an interview with Anne Farrow, co-author of the book "Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery" at https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5042377&t=1580214856071 https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=504237... . Northerners profited from supplying the Caribbean sugar plantations, all run on slave labor. Even after slavery was abolished in the North, the US economy was integrated. Northern textile mills processed Southern cotton. Northern shipwrights made ships to carry Southern cotton. Southern cotton picked by slaves. I don't think you can deny that slavery was an important part of the success of the American colonies during the time ("a few hundred years ago") that solotronics mentioned.
JabavuAdams 7y ago
Have a look at the book Doing Good Better for concrete and efficient ways to help with extreme poverty, if you're interested. As residents of the developed world, we have incredible leverage to help, if we allocate funds effectively.

eesmith 7y ago

Please don't romanticize history. Certainly some were "starving, diseased, and absolutely poor". But many were funded colonists. And, "Between the 1630s and the American Revolution, one-half to two-thirds of white immigrants to the Thirteen Colonies arrived under indentures" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indentured_servitude_in_the_Americas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indentured_servitude_in_the_Am... "These cities didn't just magically pop into existence it's the product of hard work and being a good person and citizen." Oklahoma City did "pop into existence". Within 12 hours of noon, April 22, 1889, it had a population of 10,000 people. But you're right, it wasn't "magic" - it was the product of kicking Native Americans off the land and giving it to white people in the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889. That highlights how your narrative omits a couple of other sources of prosperity in the American experience: - living in areas that the Native American population had already settled - slavery

imtringued 7y ago
The states that employed slaves were actually the least competitive. Having a high supply of workers that you don't care about leads to complacency.
- eesmith 7y ago
  Your comment seems almost unrelated to the topic, so could you explain your point further? 300 years ago, Boston and Newport were important slave ports, and "In Rhode Island colony, as much as two-thirds of the merchant fleet and a similar fraction of sailors were engaged in slave traffic." - http://slavenorth.com/profits.htm http://slavenorth.com/profits.htm "Slavery was very substantial in early Manhattan. Very early on, the populations of enslaved people began to grow. By 1740, enslaved people were one-fifth of the population of the early city, and enslaved black men were one-third of the work force." - from an interview with Anne Farrow, co-author of the book "Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery" at https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5042377&t=1580214856071 https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=504237... . Northerners profited from supplying the Caribbean sugar plantations, all run on slave labor. Even after slavery was abolished in the North, the US economy was integrated. Northern textile mills processed Southern cotton. Northern shipwrights made ships to carry Southern cotton. Southern cotton picked by slaves. I don't think you can deny that slavery was an important part of the success of the American colonies during the time ("a few hundred years ago") that solotronics mentioned.

JabavuAdams 7y ago

Have a look at the book Doing Good Better for concrete and efficient ways to help with extreme poverty, if you're interested. As residents of the developed world, we have incredible leverage to help, if we allocate funds effectively.