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Benjamin Franklin [1777
If then we consider and compare Britain and America
in these several particulars, upon the question, “To
which is it safest to lend money ?”’ we shall find:
I. Respecting former loans, that America, who
borrowed ten millions during the last war, for the
maintenance of her army of twenty-five thousand
men and other charges, had faithfully discharged
and paid that debt, and all her other debts, in 1772.
Whereas Britain, during those ten years of peace and
profitable commerce, had made little or no reduction
of her debt; but, on the contrary, from time to time,
diminished the hopes of her creditors by a wanton
diversion and misapplication of the sinking fund
destined for discharging it.
2. Respecting industry; every man in America is
employed; the greater part in cultivating their own
lands, the rest in handicrafts, navigation, and commerce.
 An idle man there, is a rarity; idleness and
inutility are disgraceful. In England the number of
that character is immense; fashion has spread it far
and wide. Hence the embarrassments of private
fortunes, and the daily bankruptcies, arising from a
universal fondness for appearance and for expensive
pleasures; and hence, in some degree, the mismanagement
 of public business; for habits of business,
and ability in it, are acquired only by practice; and,
where universal dissipation and the perpetual pursuit
of amusement are the mode, the youth educated in it
can rarely afterwards acquire that patient attention
and close application to affairs, which are so necessary
 to a statesman charged with the care of national
welfare. Hence their frequent errors in policy, and