Was Thomas Jefferson correct?

Question

...when he said that Democracy will become dissfunctional when Capitolism exceeds Democracy?

Please elaborate if you can.

Answer 1

and it has

it started off when the corporations got the same rights as people in the late 1880's

and now they are receiving more welfare than individuals

Answer 2

I would say yes, he is right.

When capitalism exceeds democracy, which I take to mean when the influence of capitalism is so strong on democracy that the common man or woman's vote and influence on policy is reduced so much that one might be as well off in an oligarchy, kingdom, totalitarian state or something other than democracy, then yes the democracy has become disfunctional, or stopped being effective.

I would research Adam Smith, Keynes, Fitzgerald, as well as Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison on this question.

Answer 3

He was absolutely correct. Democracy only functions the way it is supposed to if it is governing a self controlled self governing people.When capitolism exceeds democracy the wealthy have too much control. Much is out of balance today in our system.John Adams also warned his countrymen:
We have no government armed with power capable of controlling human passions, unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strong cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholy in adequate to the government of any other.

Answer 4

Yes! When capitalism takes priority over democracy, patriotism, or honor, any society is doomed. Look only to the great Greek and Roman empires. Once hubris, arrogance, excessive wealth, profit, and a lack of any moral compass entrenched the citizenry, those empires collapsed. America is about to follow suit. -RKO- 08/17/07

Answer 5

Yes, because of how capitalism being money it corrupts those who are in deep in government. Making the ones who can change good for all, only change for big rich companies. But it all started with Jefferson not believing in a national banking system because he theorized it would evolve into capitalism. Which we see today as true

Answer 6

It does not matter who 'controls' the economy - altruistic do gooders, or oligarchies - they will both lead to socialism...

"...Government control of the economy, no matter in whose behalf, has been the source of all the evils in our industrial history—and the solution is laissez-faire capitalism, i.e., the abolition of any and all forms of government intervention in production and trade, the separation of State and Economics, in the same way and for the same reasons as the separation of Church and State." [Ayn Rand]

Answer 7

Yes he was correct. I believe he meant when people love money more than they love their freedom, freedom will be lost.


"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace.We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." Samuel Adams

"America was established not to create wealth but to realize a vision, to realize an ideal-to discover and maintain liberty among men." Woodrow Wilson

"When the same man, or set of men, holds the sword and the purse, there is an end to Liberty." George Mason

"The main political problem is how to prevent police powers from becoming tyrannical. This is the meaning of all struggles for Liberty." Ludwig Von Mises

"The true danger is when Liberty is nibbled away, for expedients and by parts.... The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men do nothing." Edmund Burke

"It is seldom that any Liberty is lost all at once." David Hugh

"A government big enough to supply you with everything you need is a government big enough to take away everything that you have.... The course of history shows that as the government grows, liberty decreases." Thomas Jefferson

"Freedom has cost too much blood and agony to be relinquished at the cheap price of rhetoric." Thomas Sowell

"If none were to have Liberty but those who understand it, there would not be many freed Men in the world." Lord Halifax

"Liberty has never come from Government. It is always come from the subjects of Government. The history of Liberty is the history of resistance." Woodrow Wilson

"We will never be through with our fight for Liberty, because their will always be people who do not want the responsibility of freedom, and the will always be people who will gladly take that responsibility away from them, for the power it brings." N. Scott Mills

"In any free society, the conflict between social conformity and individual Liberty is permanent, unsolvable, and necessary." Kathleen Morris

"The object and practice of Liberty lies in the limitation of Governmental power." General Douglas MacArthur

"The argument for Liberty is not an argument against organization, which is one of the most powerful tools human reasoning can employ, but an argument against all exclusive, privilege, monopolistic organization, against the use of coercion to prevent others from doing better." F. A. Hayek

"Of Liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its existence, is unobstructed action according to our will. But Rightful Liberty is within limits drawn around us by the Equal Rights of others. And I do not add ‘within the limits of the law’, because the law is often but the Tyrants-will, and always so when it violates the Rights of an individual." Thomas Jefferson

"No Man is entitled to the blessings of freedom unless he be vigilant in its preservation." General Douglas MacArthur

"Necessity is the plea of every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of Tyrants; it is the Creed of slaves." William Pitt

"Make men wise and by that very operation you make them free. Civil Liberty follows as a consequence of this; no usurp power can stand against the artillery of opinion." William Godwin

"A system of capitalism presumes sound money, not fiat money manipulated by a central bank. Capitalism cherishes voluntary contracts and interest rates that are determined by savings, not credit creation by a central bank. " Ron Paul

"Capitalism should not be condemned, since we haven't had capitalism. " Ron Paul

"The obligations of our representatives in Washington are to protect our liberty, not coddle the world, precipitating no-win wars, while bringing bankruptcy and economic turmoil to our people." Ron Paul

Answer 8

Jefferson was a great American............
they started a republic not a democracy by the way.............

Answer 9

Yes, and it started in 1913 with the opening of the Federal Reserve.

Answer 10

Wasn't he the one who said that it would become dysfunctional when Big Business owned the Government?

We're there.