Now, Voyageur

[David Casseres]

>j minnich responds:

Uh-uh.  *I* responded:

>">Hardly!  First, the country was by no means founded upon business
>>enterprise as we normally understand the term.  It was founded on small
>>farming.  The vast majority of the people were small farmers and the
>>overwhelming bulk of the economy was farming.  The small farmer and his
>>family were the original model of individualism.  Then there was the
>>woodsman, who explored the country, bartered with the Indians, trapped,
>>etc.  The mythologization of these people and their activities into a
>>Rugged Individual icon which was then applied to corporate entrepreneurs
>>is the hijacking I referred to.

>The colony at Jamestown VA, circa 1609, was a for-profit project of the
>Virginia Company, an investment-capitalist concern, out to make a buck (or a
>pound, rather) for its shareholders.  Maybe not all of the colonies were
>established strictly for profit, and maybe the motives for founding the
>colonies were not the same as the motives for founding the country, but
>clearly the aroma of "business enterprise" was present here from the very
>beginning."

But as I posted earlier, the aroma didn't come from the individual 
colonists.

>A-and the rugged woodsman was trapping those furs for the Hudson Bay Company,
>and later John Jacob Astor (who had one of those Berkshire mansions) and the
>like...

And today, the vast majority of us are employees of capitalist corporate 
enterprises, just like those trappers.  Contrary to the propaganda we are 
all raised on, that *doesn't* make us a nation of capitalists.  It makes 
us (duh!) a nation of employees!

Cheers,
David