Sparknotes The Poor Richard's Almanac American Individualism

One of Ronald Reagan’s famous propositions was the assertion that greed is good. The meaning behind the belief that greed is good, however, has been established long before the 1980s. While many individuals believe that America was founded on Judeo Christian beliefs through the coming of the Puritans seeking religious freedom, the heart of the American spirit lies in a more universal religion, a religion that began on consumerism and paved way toward the goal of economic freedom. American consumerism not only provided the basis of the economy in the United States, but introduced the country to cultural individualism as well.
First and foremost, one of the driving factors that led to the discovery of the new world and colonization of the Americas
In the Poor Richard’s Almanac, Franklin uses the desire to be financially free in order to sell the American dream, where an individual has the opportunity to work hard and build his or her life in order to gain the freedom to live life on his or her means. Franklin’s ideology combined with the patriotism of the behind the American Revolution, during which America longed to become free from Britain, to evoke the patriotic duty of each individual American to become financially autonomous. It takes the macroeconomic desire to be free as a country and introduces it to a smaller scale where people can contribute to the individualistic culture by starting a revolution of their own by becoming wealthy through free enterprise. This desire to be autonomous penetrates into the individualistic political culture of the U.S., where people are reluctant to receive help from the government in hopes of overcoming their situation on their own, regardless of their circumstances and as a result vote for less federal funding for social services such as welfare (Coleman). This individualistic political culture provides the basis for numerous policies and the mindset of numerous states, including many of whom were the first colonies admitted to the union, including Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Maryland, and New Jersey (Leckrone). Overall, the consumeristic
Ralph Waldo Emerson, the father of transcendental philosophy, uses his writings and philosophy to advocate for personal freedom on social and economic levels. Emerson goes on his address The American Scholar and explains that “the world is nothing, the man is all; in yourself is the law of all nature” as a way to connect larger systems of the working world with the inner systems of one’s personal world, much like how Franklin’s ideas regarding monetary autonomy connected with the desire to be autonomous as a country during the Revolution (Emerson). These works universalize the need for an individualistic culture and establish a doctrine of thought apart from religion or patriotism, therefore transcending the context of American culture and infiltrating influence throughout the world. This idea of interconnectedness ties in with Emerson’s political thought where he believed that everyone was entitled to their individual rights while obligated to strive for a better life on his or her means without the help of the government. By utilizing the individual as part of a collective in Emerson’s ideology, one can conclude that inner