There were some very serious economic crises during Franklin's times, and I really do not think that his advice was all that helpful. The Continental dollar became worthless, the farmers in the boondocks tried to support themselves by making corn whiskey, and fought to keep it from being taxed, and Washington himself led the Army to put down the rebellion. The government did in fact, help the poor by giving them land in the wilderness. Some managed to feed themselves, but once in the wilderness, these pioneers ceased to be a problem for the government or the people in the cities. Many starved, were killed by Indians and eaten by bears.
There were financial "panics" on average, every ten years or so. Boom and bust is what capitalism does when unregulated>
There was a reason for Stephen Foster's song "Hard Times".
Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears,
V I
While we all sup sorrow with the poor;
IV
I
There's a song that will linger forever in our ears;
V I
Oh Hard times come again no more.
I IV I
Tis the song, the sigh of the weary,
V
Hard Times, hard times, come again no more
I IV
I
Many days you have lingered around my cabin door;
V I
Oh hard times come again no more.
While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay,
There are frail forms fainting at the door;
Though their voices are silent, their pleading looks will say
Oh hard times come again no more.
There's a pale drooping maiden who toils her life away,
With a worn heart whose better days are o'er:
Though her voice would be merry, 'tis sighing all the day,
Oh hard times come again no more.
'Tis a sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave,
'Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore,
'Tis a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave,
Oh! Hard Times, come again no more
Death
Stephen Foster had become impoverished while living at the North American Hotel at 30 Bowery on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York. He was reportedly confined to his bed for days by a persistent fever; Foster tried to call a chambermaid, but collapsed, falling against the washbasin next to his bed and shattering it, which gouged his head. It took three hours to get him to Bellevue Hospital. In an era before transfusions and antibiotics, he succumbed three days after his admittance, aged 37.[4]
In his worn leather wallet, there was found a scrap of paper that simply said "Dear friends and gentle hearts" along with 38 cents in Civil War scrip and three pennies. Foster was buried in the Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh. One of his most beloved works, "Beautiful Dreamer", was published shortly after his death.[5]
Stephen Foster needed Medicaid, it seems.
