Jim Devine wrote:
>
> May 19, 2001 /New York TIMES
> If Richer Isn't Happier, What Is?
> By DAVID LEONHARDT
>
> One of the most often-repeated parts of the [U.S.] Declaration of
> Independence may also be one of the least influential. People march in
> Washington protesting various assaults against the first two unalienable
> rights, life and liberty. The third, however, rarely merits mention beyond
> the simple recitation of the Declaration's most famous sentence.
>
> Instead, the pursuit of happiness is left to the free market.
It is interesting that the authors chose to conceal their real meaning
-- the first draft of the Declaration, I understand, read "life,
liberty, and property," which was really an 18th c. cliche. I imagine
the authors, being all men of property, simply assumed that all rational
'men' (women?) would construe "happiness = property."
Carrol
