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If he can work an ATM he is. If he can manage an IRA electronically he is. Indeed, I wouldn't trust my economy to a bunch of dead guys who couldn't even figure out how to make the time stop flashing on their VCR.

They also had a different definition of wealth back then. Today that whiz-kid with the VCR probably thinks he's wealthy because he's got all the latest electronics but hasn't tried to buy a house, lives paycheck to paycheck, "invests" his money in a $25,000 car, and is so far in debt, he may never get out.

Yes, but back then the average kid would consider himself lucky if he had a mule less then ten years old. He would be damned fortunate if he didn't work himself to death on his farm by the age of 50.

At the same time the gentry...including our founding fathers...were engaged in smuggling (the ultimate form of free trade) to avoid paying customs on their products to the English. The funny thing is that those same founding fathers continued to exercise free trade (smuggling) after the war because they didn't want to pay the same customs to their own government. Which prompted the establishment of the Revenue Cutter Service by Alexander Hamilton and an act of Congress...the start of big government.