Between 1959 and 1953, Communist officials told people in every village and neighborhood to identify and arrest anyone who owned land, a business, or who was financially independent. After being denounced and insulted before large crowds, most were stripped of their property and either shot, or sent to labor camps where they soon died of hunger or disease.
Liberty creates prosperity. Liberty includes freedom to make the most important choices in your own life. That includes the freedom to buy, own and enjoy property. It also includes responsibilities. They include following laws that apply equally to everyone, and honoring the agreements you make with others. The 13 English colonies recognized and protected this liberty since long before we became the United States. That is why America quickly became a free and rich “land of boundless opportunities” and envy of the world. It is why New Jersey embraced the motto “Liberty and Prosperity” in 1776 when we declared our independence.
The French, Spanish, and Portuguese colonies of Central and South America did not do that. That is why most of them stagnated into poverty and violence, even when they had richer natural resources than the United States.
George Washington chose to get paid with land instead of gold or silver when he began his career as a land surveyor at age 17.
John C. McKee, the son of black slaves, became a millionaire by buying and building on land whenever he could. One of his developments was McKee City near what is now the area along the Black Horse Pike in Hamilton Township between English Creek Avenue and the Hamilton Mall. John McKee advised other freed blacks to save money and invest in land rather than put it in banks, bonds, or stocks. Click here for New York Public Library biography of Col. John C. McKee.
This combination of freedom and responsibility created “blue collar millionaires” as well as a large middle class in America. This was described in the 1996 best selling book “The Millionaire Next Door” by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko.
“For decades, the authors studied and profiled America’s millionaires—the 3% of the population with a net worth of more than $1 million, who account for more than half the country’s personal wealth. . . Shortform.com
“The millionaires in this book could maintain their lifestyles for years without a paycheck—they’re financially independent. They didn’t inherit their wealth from their families. More than 80% of them accumulated it over their own lifetime. They’re self-made businesspeople who have lived in the same town most of their adult lives. They own a business and live in a modest neighborhood. The key to their success is living a lifestyle that makes it possible for them to build wealth”. Shortform.com
The most popular way for blue collar workers to become wealthy is to buy, improve, rent and sell real estate in neighborhoods they are familiar with.
Self-made millionaires, and those working to be like them are from every race and ethnic group. They know the “system” is not rigged against them because it allowed them to succeed through working, saving, and achievement. They rarely sell their votes to politicians or beg them for favors. They rarely seek or expect government jobs or contracts. They don’t like politicians who reward people who don’t work by taxing those who do. They people own property and pay taxes. They buy what they need. They have experience controlling costs in their own homes and businesses, so they expect politicians to do the same with government.
Socialists politicians despise financially independent people and see them as a threat. When they take control of government, they act quickly to punish or eliminate them.
When the “Bolshevik” (Majority) Socialists (later called Communists) took control of Russia in 1918, they systematically arrested or killed almost any landlord, business owner or “kulak” (farmer who owned his/her own land) they could find.
Felix Dzerzhinsky, created the “Cheka” (later NKVD and KGB) to carry out this “Red Terror” between 1918 and 1921. He called it “the terrorization, arrests and extermination of enemies of the revolution on the basis of their class affiliation or of their pre-revolutionary roles.” Source: The Cheka: Lenin’s Political Police by George Leggett. Official Cheka records state that they killed 50,000 people during the “Red Terror”. Historian Sergei Volkov estimated that as many as two million people were killed.
When the Communist Party took control of China in 1950, it held “Speak Bitterness” meetings in every town and neighborhood. Financially independent business and landowners, as well as supporters of the previous regime, were brought to meetings before large crowds. There, they were publicly denounced and humiliated for anything and everything they had done wrong in their lives. Then they were either shot right afterwards, or sent to forced labor camps where most died of hunger and disease. Their land and property were given to others. Roughly 700,000 to 2 million of these “enemies of the revolution” were killed during this campaign between 1949 and 1953.
Today’s “woke” Democrats are not yet arresting or killing Americans for being financially independent. However, they are using fear of the coronavirus to systematically destroy their financial independence and political influence. Sadly, President Trump and most other Republicans went along or did little or nothing to stop them.
On March 27, 2020, President Trump and most Republicans joined Democrats in enacting the “CARES Act”. (“Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act). Part of that law imposed a “moratorium” to prevent all evictions of all residential tenants in the country until August 23, 2020. When that moratorium expired, the Center for Disease Control issued its own national “moratorium” until December 31, 2020. Then it extended it until January 31, then to March 31, and then to June 30, 2021. Here in New Jersey, Governor Murphy and the Democratic majority legislature issued an even stricter “moratorium”. That “moratorium” will not expire until March of next year. However, these moratoriums so far were never allowed to expire and continue indefinitely.
William A. “Bill” Thompson, III is an Atlantic City attorney who has specialized in real estate and landlord-tenant law for roughly fifty years. Last June, he published a letter in PressofAtlanticCity.com entitled “End eviction moratorium in August as planned”. Click here for the link to his complete letter explaining the hardship and damage done by these “moratoriums”. Voice of the People, June 19, 2021 | Letters | pressofatlanticcity.com
Click here for another blog post summarizing the hardship and damage done by these moratoriums, and why they are blatantly un-American and unconstitutional.
These “moratoriums” are a direct and unconstitutional attack on the foundation of the American Dream.
They deny the “self-evident” truth that each of us is endowed with “certain unalienable rights”. Among these are “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. That right includes the fundamental right to own and enjoy property and make contracts.
Since 1844, this specific interpretation of our Declaration of Independence has been part of our New Jersey Constitution. Article I, Section 1 of our Constitution states:
“All persons are by nature free and independent, and have certain natural and unalienable rights, among which are those of enjoying and defending life and liberty, of acquiring, possessing, and protecting property, and of pursuing and obtaining safety and happiness”.
The Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution states that “private property” cannot “be taken for public use, without just compensation”.
Article I, Section 20 of New Jersey’s State Constitution states that ““Private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation. . . “
Article I, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution states: “No State shall pass any. . . ex post factor law or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts.”
William A. “Bill” Thompson, III is an Atlantic City attorney who has specialized in real estate and landlord-tenant law for roughly fifty years. Last June, he published a letter in PressofAtlanticCity.com entitled “End eviction moratorium in August as planned”. Click here for the link to his complete letter. Voice of the People, June 19, 2021 | Letters | pressofatlanticcity.com
Thank you for posting this. I have passed it on. Extremely concerning. I am making copy and posting.