I say a good indicator of too much central government is when people vote in federal elections based on how the outcome will effect them personally be it beneficial or detrimental.
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In my opinion, we crossed that threshold a very long time ago.
Our federal government is out of control.
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Nopeā¦but he also didnāt ask for any help from the government and the fact that you didnāt understand this from the very beginning of your post is in part, why this country is weakening. Jefferson managed it and everything was provided from his business enterprise. Do you really, REALLY NOT understand this?
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Yes, Jefferson āmanaged it.ā 
Thomas Jefferson enslaved over 600 human beings throughout the course of his life. 400 people were enslaved at Monticello; the other 200 people were held in bondage on Jeffersonās other properties. At any given time, around 130 people were enslaved at Monticello.
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I may appreciate the methodology but that was a sign of the times and does not negate in anyway what I said.
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I guess I should have been more explicit.
Jefferson, the independent man of the world had slaves to plow his field.
IOW, things are drastically different today than they were in the good old days when gentleman farmers depended on slavery to make it in the worldā¦
I think your view is overly simplistic.
No. He owned them. It came out of his pocket. Do you really not understand this difference between being independent and dependent on our govenment?
Todayā¦if a farmer were to be comparable to Jefferson, thereād be āgreen cardsā involved making it perfectly legal. I stand against farmers not doing their work legally. I have to follow the laws and they can be VERY, VERY expensive butā¦tough doo-dooā¦thatās the hand youāre dealt if you want to play.
It makes it a terrible example of someone succeeding without government help.
And of course he got help from the government - in the form of the government legalizing slavery so he could tend his business for pennies per hourā¦
Sure it does.
You suggested people in the past were somehow more independent. When in fact they were just dependent in different ways.
The government bac than made and kept slavery legal, which gave slave owning businesses a tremendous advantage.
The southern states we so dependent on slavery, they went to war for it.
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He was allowed to own other human beings because the government allowed him to.
And it cost him pennies of what free labor would have cost.
Who allowed him to own other human beings?
Really? Do employers today directly pay for the housing and nutritional expense of their employees and do so on their own land? The expenses were handled differently but expenses were still there and they were handled by the land owners. Today the employees handle those things from their earnings.
It was the way of the world at the time. Today we have other things that are unique to todayās society. How many trucks or tractors were around at that time? Now consider how useful those tools are now on a farm today? Times will continue to change through eternity and itās up to each of us as individuals to find our independent path through our life.
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Oh stop.
Do you know how much cheaper slave labor was than free labor?
And why could they get away with it?
The government.
Because the government allowed it.
As I said, your original answer was overly simplistic because of all these factors and even more.
No my friend. You stop being ignorant about yesterday vs today. The fact of this nation having to be made up of independent, tax generating individuals has not changed. That dead fast independence is in part what makes this the strongest nation on the planet.
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Slave owners werenāt independent. Their success relied on enslaving human beings.
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Who allowed them to enslave people, cutting the cost of labor by 95%?
When and where did government plow fields?
Thatās not exactly how it went. Slavery was ālegalā before government.
