Civics -- Two Lessons

Ben Franklin, explaining why voting rights should not be connected to property ownership:

Today a man owns a jackass worth fifty dollars and he is entitled to a vote; but before the next election the jackass dies. The man in the meantime has become more experienced, his knowledge of the principles of government, and his acquaintance with mankind, are more extensive and he is therefore better qualified to make a proper selection of rulers -- but the jackass is dead and the man cannot vote. Now, gentlemen, pray inform me, in whom is the right of suffrage? In the man or in the jackass?

John Kenneth Galbraith, on systems of government:

Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite.

(Both quotations can be heard in Chapter 3 of the .mp3 version Al Gore's The Assault on Reason. Or you can read the printed version if you're one of those 20th-century types who enjoys paper and words.)