Alexis de Tocqueville: Equality of Property
on Friday, July 6, 2018Alexis de Tocqueville Money Quote saying U.S. citizens are strong believers in money over fairness. Sharing property equally is held in disdain. Alexis de Tocqueville said:
“I know of no other country where love of money has such a grip on men’s hearts or where stronger scorn is expressed for the theory of permanent equality of property” — Alexis de Tocqueville
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Alexis de Tocqueville is referring to the American belief that equality of property outcomes should not be guaranteed or enforced permanently. He observed that most Americans did not support the idea that all citizens should have equal amounts of wealth and property over time.
Rather than emphasizing fairness in property distribution, Americans at the time placed a higher value on individual economic freedom and the ability to accumulate private property through one’s own efforts and abilities. Tocqueville saw Americans as strongly believing in the merits of a market-based system where property ownership was not kept permanently equal between all people.
Birthday: July 29, 1805 – Death: April 16, 1859