1 00:00:17,560 --> 00:00:19,040 Speaker 1: Pushkin too quick. 2 00:00:19,240 --> 00:00:24,840 Speaker 2: No, it's perfect pushkin stuff. You got it. This episode 3 00:00:24,920 --> 00:00:40,520 Speaker 2: is presented by Odu. Before Benjamin Franklin whatever flew a 4 00:00:40,600 --> 00:00:44,360 Speaker 2: kite in a thunderstorm, before he edited the Declaration of Independence, 5 00:00:44,400 --> 00:00:47,479 Speaker 2: before he met with Kings, he was mainly two things, 6 00:00:48,320 --> 00:00:53,120 Speaker 2: one a successful businessman and two the best selling writer 7 00:00:53,240 --> 00:00:55,520 Speaker 2: in what would soon become the United States of America. 8 00:00:56,200 --> 00:00:58,640 Speaker 2: And these two things, being a best selling writer and 9 00:00:58,680 --> 00:01:02,480 Speaker 2: being a successful businessman, they were actually related because at 10 00:01:02,480 --> 00:01:06,520 Speaker 2: the time, most writing was religious or philosophical. It was 11 00:01:06,640 --> 00:01:11,399 Speaker 2: very high minded. But Benjamin Franklin's writing was not like 12 00:01:11,440 --> 00:01:14,039 Speaker 2: this at all. It was the writing of a businessman. 13 00:01:14,120 --> 00:01:17,679 Speaker 2: It was practical on the ground advice. We call it 14 00:01:17,720 --> 00:01:20,520 Speaker 2: mass market for a mass market. We call it self help. Right, 15 00:01:20,600 --> 00:01:23,360 Speaker 2: we call it financial self help because what he wrote 16 00:01:23,400 --> 00:01:28,760 Speaker 2: about was how to make money. Ben Franklin basically invented 17 00:01:28,800 --> 00:01:32,560 Speaker 2: this American genre of the business self help book. And 18 00:01:32,680 --> 00:01:37,640 Speaker 2: on top of that, more importantly, he created a new 19 00:01:37,680 --> 00:01:41,520 Speaker 2: way to think about work. He created this American value 20 00:01:41,600 --> 00:01:44,760 Speaker 2: system and gave us the language to live in the 21 00:01:44,760 --> 00:01:48,720 Speaker 2: industrial age. I'm Jacob Goldstein, I'm Robert Smith, and this 22 00:01:48,880 --> 00:01:52,680 Speaker 2: is business for sure. About the history of business and 23 00:01:52,720 --> 00:01:57,720 Speaker 2: today and today we are starting a series not two episodes. 24 00:01:57,760 --> 00:01:59,400 Speaker 2: I can't even say not one because I wouldn't be 25 00:01:59,440 --> 00:02:00,240 Speaker 2: a series. 26 00:02:00,120 --> 00:02:06,520 Speaker 1: Three your favorite episodes, and we're calling it American Genius. 27 00:02:06,680 --> 00:02:09,520 Speaker 1: As a part of a celebration of America two fifty Baby, 28 00:02:09,680 --> 00:02:12,640 Speaker 1: we are telling the stories not necessarily of business people, 29 00:02:12,680 --> 00:02:15,760 Speaker 1: as we've done on this program, we're telling the stories 30 00:02:15,800 --> 00:02:19,560 Speaker 1: of writers. Three writers who changed the way we think 31 00:02:19,760 --> 00:02:23,040 Speaker 1: about business and money in America. And we're starting with 32 00:02:23,080 --> 00:02:26,880 Speaker 1: Ben Franklin, who was there at the jump. And you 33 00:02:26,919 --> 00:02:29,160 Speaker 1: know he did real work as a scientist, was a 34 00:02:29,200 --> 00:02:31,360 Speaker 1: father of our country. But that is not what we 35 00:02:31,400 --> 00:02:34,280 Speaker 1: are here to talk about today today on the show. 36 00:02:34,639 --> 00:02:39,160 Speaker 2: Benjamin Franklin, businessman and writer. There's some reason he's on one. 37 00:02:39,120 --> 00:02:41,760 Speaker 1: Hundred all about the Benjamin's baby Babe. 38 00:02:42,800 --> 00:02:46,560 Speaker 2: In seventeen eighty eight, when Benjamin Franklin no middle name, 39 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:49,960 Speaker 2: was eighty two years old, he wrote his last will 40 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:53,080 Speaker 2: and testament, Robert Smith, give us the first six words 41 00:02:53,360 --> 00:02:58,720 Speaker 2: my bifocals invented by Ben Franklin. Of course, I Benjamin 42 00:02:58,760 --> 00:03:04,560 Speaker 2: Franklin of Philadelphia, Comma Printer, Comma Printer. At this moment, 43 00:03:04,960 --> 00:03:08,040 Speaker 2: Ben Franklin was the governor, or sort of governor ish 44 00:03:08,040 --> 00:03:10,920 Speaker 2: of Pennsylvania. He was a world famous scientist. He'd been 45 00:03:11,040 --> 00:03:14,080 Speaker 2: US Minister to frank Ants during the American Revolution. But 46 00:03:14,160 --> 00:03:18,920 Speaker 2: he starts with his job printer, which, in the context 47 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:21,600 Speaker 2: of this historical moment, is a baller move. 48 00:03:21,680 --> 00:03:25,639 Speaker 1: People at this time did not identify themselves by their jobs, 49 00:03:25,800 --> 00:03:28,359 Speaker 1: at least people of the status of Benjamin Franklin. 50 00:03:28,639 --> 00:03:32,560 Speaker 2: Gentlemen didn't work right. Work was for the lower classes. 51 00:03:33,160 --> 00:03:37,120 Speaker 2: And so here is Franklin, who you know, could be 52 00:03:37,160 --> 00:03:38,720 Speaker 2: a gentleman at this point if he wanted to, But 53 00:03:38,760 --> 00:03:42,720 Speaker 2: he is owning his identity as a tradesman. And in 54 00:03:42,760 --> 00:03:45,640 Speaker 2: this Will and Testament, which is a piece of writing, 55 00:03:45,640 --> 00:03:49,800 Speaker 2: he is already starting to create this new value system 56 00:03:49,800 --> 00:03:52,800 Speaker 2: for America, where your trade is your identity, where you 57 00:03:52,840 --> 00:03:57,360 Speaker 2: take pride in your work, where we admire self made people, 58 00:03:57,400 --> 00:03:59,320 Speaker 2: which is the opposite of the way it worked at 59 00:03:59,320 --> 00:04:00,960 Speaker 2: the time. You didn't want to be self made. You 60 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:03,120 Speaker 2: wanted to be born to a family of old money. 61 00:04:03,480 --> 00:04:06,880 Speaker 2: And Franklin truly was self made. His father was a 62 00:04:06,920 --> 00:04:10,840 Speaker 2: Puritan who came to Boston and worked as a chandler. 63 00:04:11,520 --> 00:04:14,920 Speaker 2: Job you hear about so much anymore. Making candles out 64 00:04:14,960 --> 00:04:18,880 Speaker 2: of callow out of animal fat a hard, dirty, smelly job. 65 00:04:19,200 --> 00:04:22,080 Speaker 1: Jacob knows this because for a Planet Money episode, Jacob 66 00:04:22,200 --> 00:04:26,480 Speaker 1: actually ordered be fat and made his own candles at home. 67 00:04:26,800 --> 00:04:29,440 Speaker 2: Smells very bad, takes a long time, and the candles 68 00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:32,160 Speaker 2: aren't very nice at least if I'm making them. So 69 00:04:32,320 --> 00:04:36,279 Speaker 2: this is the family Ben Franklin is born into. He 70 00:04:36,360 --> 00:04:39,280 Speaker 2: is not particularly religious, and he doesn't want to be 71 00:04:39,320 --> 00:04:42,120 Speaker 2: a chandler, and he threatens to run off to sea 72 00:04:42,640 --> 00:04:45,080 Speaker 2: like one of his older brothers had done, but that 73 00:04:45,200 --> 00:04:48,080 Speaker 2: brother had died at sea, and so Ben Franklin's dad 74 00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:52,479 Speaker 2: tucked him into becoming an apprentice with another older brother, 75 00:04:53,200 --> 00:04:56,480 Speaker 2: a brother named James, and James was a printer in Boston, 76 00:04:57,000 --> 00:05:02,200 Speaker 2: and being an apprentice was a formal legal thing at 77 00:05:02,240 --> 00:05:05,800 Speaker 2: the time, and in fact, twelve year old Ben Franklin 78 00:05:06,080 --> 00:05:09,560 Speaker 2: signed a legal binding contract promising to work for his 79 00:05:09,640 --> 00:05:12,320 Speaker 2: brother until he was twenty one years old and went 80 00:05:12,360 --> 00:05:13,840 Speaker 2: to work as a Printer's apranas. 81 00:05:13,720 --> 00:05:16,840 Speaker 1: Wow with your brothers, like sign the contract, dude, Yeah, 82 00:05:16,880 --> 00:05:20,360 Speaker 1: and printer at the time meant something quite different than 83 00:05:20,400 --> 00:05:21,600 Speaker 1: it than it means today. 84 00:05:22,320 --> 00:05:25,560 Speaker 2: You know today your printer and I think of Kinko's 85 00:05:26,160 --> 00:05:29,160 Speaker 2: just probably showing my age. But remember Kinko's was a 86 00:05:29,160 --> 00:05:31,520 Speaker 2: big deal. I spent a lot of time at Kinko's 87 00:05:31,520 --> 00:05:33,919 Speaker 2: twenty five years ago. You get the bond paper for 88 00:05:33,960 --> 00:05:36,320 Speaker 2: your resume, and like it has the watermark, and like 89 00:05:36,480 --> 00:05:41,279 Speaker 2: so there, Prince, so luxurious Goldstein resume three Final Final, 90 00:05:41,360 --> 00:05:46,599 Speaker 2: really final. Anyway, in the seventeen hundreds, printer was sort 91 00:05:46,640 --> 00:05:49,400 Speaker 2: of more like we think of publisher today, you know, 92 00:05:49,560 --> 00:05:53,000 Speaker 2: like Ben's brother James, like a lot of printers, published 93 00:05:53,000 --> 00:05:55,760 Speaker 2: his own newspaper. It was called The New England Current. 94 00:05:56,320 --> 00:06:00,280 Speaker 2: And in fact, in April of seventeen twenty two, Ben 95 00:06:00,320 --> 00:06:02,520 Speaker 2: had been print sing for a few years. He's sixteen 96 00:06:02,600 --> 00:06:08,040 Speaker 2: years old. He sneaks off after hours, disguises his handwriting, 97 00:06:08,600 --> 00:06:12,560 Speaker 2: and starts submitting articles to his brother's paper under the 98 00:06:12,560 --> 00:06:17,760 Speaker 2: pseudonym silence do Good? Know what se Silence do good? 99 00:06:17,839 --> 00:06:21,080 Speaker 2: Do Good? Now a very pseudoonym. 100 00:06:21,480 --> 00:06:24,719 Speaker 1: I mean at the time people did often write under pseudonyms. 101 00:06:24,720 --> 00:06:25,520 Speaker 1: Did his brother know? 102 00:06:26,080 --> 00:06:31,400 Speaker 2: No, his brother didn't know, and his brother loved the articles, 103 00:06:31,720 --> 00:06:36,760 Speaker 2: So silence do Good? Is this widow from the Massachusetts 104 00:06:36,839 --> 00:06:41,440 Speaker 2: countryside who's kind of plane spoken plane thinking poking fun 105 00:06:41,520 --> 00:06:45,159 Speaker 2: at the higher classes, being written by a teenage boy, 106 00:06:45,279 --> 00:06:47,839 Speaker 2: being written by a teenage boy. And there's one in 107 00:06:47,880 --> 00:06:49,800 Speaker 2: particular I think that's worth looking at for a minute, 108 00:06:49,839 --> 00:06:52,920 Speaker 2: Robert give us. This paragraph is from an article where 109 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:57,200 Speaker 2: Silence do Good is making fun of Boston's Harvard boys. 110 00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:01,400 Speaker 1: They learn little more than how to carry themselves handsomely 111 00:07:01,760 --> 00:07:04,760 Speaker 1: and enter a room genteely, which might as well be 112 00:07:04,800 --> 00:07:07,919 Speaker 1: acquired at a dancing school. And from thence they return 113 00:07:08,200 --> 00:07:12,480 Speaker 1: after abundance of trouble, and charge as great blockheads as ever, 114 00:07:12,840 --> 00:07:17,520 Speaker 1: only more proud and self conceited. There's only like a 115 00:07:17,560 --> 00:07:20,880 Speaker 1: handful of universities in the United States at this time. 116 00:07:20,880 --> 00:07:23,160 Speaker 1: It's before there was a United States. There's only like 117 00:07:23,200 --> 00:07:25,240 Speaker 1: five universities, and they already hate Harvard. 118 00:07:25,480 --> 00:07:29,280 Speaker 2: Yes, well, Ben Franklin in particular does right, because he 119 00:07:29,400 --> 00:07:33,880 Speaker 2: is a brilliant young man who only has two years 120 00:07:33,920 --> 00:07:36,400 Speaker 2: of formal schooling and is never going to get more. 121 00:07:36,440 --> 00:07:39,600 Speaker 2: He's not going to Harvard, so he has a kind 122 00:07:39,640 --> 00:07:42,440 Speaker 2: of a chip on his shoulder, perhaps right, some class resentment. 123 00:07:42,720 --> 00:07:46,800 Speaker 2: And one other thing that's worth mentioning here is Harvard 124 00:07:47,040 --> 00:07:50,320 Speaker 2: is a religious school. It's essentially a seminary, right, and 125 00:07:50,680 --> 00:07:52,960 Speaker 2: Franklin is going to go on in his life to 126 00:07:53,080 --> 00:07:56,880 Speaker 2: create what will become the University of Pennsylvania, which is 127 00:07:56,920 --> 00:07:59,560 Speaker 2: a very different kind of college, right, not a religious school, 128 00:07:59,560 --> 00:08:02,440 Speaker 2: but a school to train students for practical jobs in 129 00:08:02,480 --> 00:08:05,720 Speaker 2: you know, business and government, very much in keeping with 130 00:08:05,800 --> 00:08:09,680 Speaker 2: his practical get your hands dirty in the world persona. 131 00:08:09,920 --> 00:08:13,560 Speaker 2: He's pulling one over on his brother, but he's learning 132 00:08:13,600 --> 00:08:16,640 Speaker 2: how to triangulate all these different parts of what will 133 00:08:16,640 --> 00:08:20,440 Speaker 2: be American society by using humor and being clever. Yes, 134 00:08:20,560 --> 00:08:24,119 Speaker 2: he is very witty, and that becomes sort of core 135 00:08:24,200 --> 00:08:26,520 Speaker 2: to his identity as a writer, as we'll see. So 136 00:08:26,600 --> 00:08:28,280 Speaker 2: these articles do well. He writes them for a few 137 00:08:28,320 --> 00:08:31,600 Speaker 2: months and then stops because he thinks his brother's onto him. 138 00:08:31,640 --> 00:08:36,679 Speaker 2: Basically silence do good, and ultimately he decides he can't 139 00:08:36,720 --> 00:08:39,640 Speaker 2: bear serving out this apprenticeship, in part because his brother 140 00:08:39,680 --> 00:08:43,600 Speaker 2: actually beats him physically, which you know was more common 141 00:08:43,720 --> 00:08:46,400 Speaker 2: at the time, but Franklin didn't like it. He's bound 142 00:08:46,480 --> 00:08:48,480 Speaker 2: by law to keep working for his brother, but he 143 00:08:48,480 --> 00:08:51,680 Speaker 2: decides he's going to break the law and he flees. 144 00:08:51,760 --> 00:08:53,800 Speaker 2: He's going to flee Boston. He has a friend book 145 00:08:53,880 --> 00:08:57,680 Speaker 2: him a passage on a ship to New York. Cover story. 146 00:08:57,720 --> 00:08:59,920 Speaker 2: He was a boy who had an intrigue with a 147 00:08:59,960 --> 00:09:01,199 Speaker 2: girl of bad character. 148 00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:03,800 Speaker 1: Hmmm, whose character was bad? 149 00:09:03,960 --> 00:09:06,120 Speaker 2: Yeah, So he gets to New York. He can't find 150 00:09:06,120 --> 00:09:08,679 Speaker 2: work in New York, and a printer there tells him 151 00:09:08,720 --> 00:09:11,200 Speaker 2: to go look for work in Philadelphia. You know, at 152 00:09:11,200 --> 00:09:14,080 Speaker 2: the time, even heading from New York to Philadelphia is 153 00:09:14,280 --> 00:09:16,880 Speaker 2: a journey. It takes him several days to get there. 154 00:09:16,960 --> 00:09:20,720 Speaker 2: First he sleeps in an open boat in New York Harbor, 155 00:09:21,320 --> 00:09:25,600 Speaker 2: and then he goes ashore in New Jersey and sleeps 156 00:09:25,640 --> 00:09:27,760 Speaker 2: in some old lady's house there the next night, And 157 00:09:27,920 --> 00:09:31,040 Speaker 2: eventually he finds some people in a rowboat going down 158 00:09:31,040 --> 00:09:34,320 Speaker 2: the Delaware River to Philadelphia, and he gets in and 159 00:09:34,360 --> 00:09:36,559 Speaker 2: they row through the night, and they get kind of lost, 160 00:09:36,600 --> 00:09:38,520 Speaker 2: but you know, it's a river. You can't get that lost. 161 00:09:39,040 --> 00:09:41,440 Speaker 2: And at eight o'clock in the morning, I believe it's 162 00:09:41,480 --> 00:09:44,840 Speaker 2: Sunday morning, they row up to the wharf in Philadelphia. 163 00:09:45,520 --> 00:09:47,480 Speaker 2: The Philadelphia is going to be the center of the revolution, 164 00:09:47,640 --> 00:09:50,680 Speaker 2: is going to be the city where Franklin makes his fortune. 165 00:09:50,720 --> 00:09:53,880 Speaker 2: And so there is this moment that he memorializes later 166 00:09:53,880 --> 00:09:56,840 Speaker 2: in his autobiography itself an important piece of his writing. 167 00:09:57,440 --> 00:10:00,800 Speaker 2: This moment when he makes his landing in Philadelphia, Robert 168 00:10:00,880 --> 00:10:01,520 Speaker 2: give it to us. 169 00:10:01,840 --> 00:10:04,840 Speaker 1: I was dirty from my journey. My pockets were stuffed 170 00:10:04,840 --> 00:10:08,120 Speaker 1: out with shirts and stockings, and I knew no soul 171 00:10:08,280 --> 00:10:11,800 Speaker 1: nor where to look for lodging. I was fatigued with traveling, rowing, 172 00:10:11,840 --> 00:10:15,040 Speaker 1: and want of rest. I was very hungry, and my 173 00:10:15,120 --> 00:10:18,360 Speaker 1: whole stock of cash consisted of a Dutch dollar and 174 00:10:18,400 --> 00:10:22,480 Speaker 1: about a shilling in copper. He's a poor man at 175 00:10:22,480 --> 00:10:25,840 Speaker 1: eight am on the docks of Philadelphia. And you know 176 00:10:26,160 --> 00:10:31,959 Speaker 1: he's writing this much later in his life, consciously creating 177 00:10:32,040 --> 00:10:36,520 Speaker 1: this image of himself. And I do want to emphasize 178 00:10:36,559 --> 00:10:39,760 Speaker 1: how unusual this model is at the time, This self 179 00:10:39,800 --> 00:10:43,720 Speaker 1: made man myth, because you don't want to be self made. 180 00:10:43,880 --> 00:10:46,560 Speaker 2: It's low class to be self made. You know, this 181 00:10:46,760 --> 00:10:50,320 Speaker 2: idea that we have today is the opposite, right, and 182 00:10:50,360 --> 00:10:53,080 Speaker 2: it comes from Franklin. Today there is the derisive term 183 00:10:53,160 --> 00:10:57,080 Speaker 2: nepo baiting. Well, exactly right. And these days, if you 184 00:10:57,160 --> 00:11:00,000 Speaker 2: are a billionaire, you had better have a Benjamin Franklin 185 00:11:00,120 --> 00:11:03,160 Speaker 2: story about starting in a garage, coming up with the 186 00:11:03,240 --> 00:11:07,120 Speaker 2: idea from nothing. And here is Benjamin Franklin inventing it 187 00:11:07,240 --> 00:11:12,240 Speaker 2: right before our eyes. So he's in Philadelphia and there 188 00:11:12,240 --> 00:11:15,839 Speaker 2: two printers already working in town. He gets a job 189 00:11:15,880 --> 00:11:18,120 Speaker 2: with one of them, who basically sucks it, is just 190 00:11:18,200 --> 00:11:20,240 Speaker 2: bad at running the business, doesn't know what he's doing. 191 00:11:20,800 --> 00:11:23,480 Speaker 2: And in a few years Franklin sets up his own shop, 192 00:11:24,120 --> 00:11:28,240 Speaker 2: initially with a partner. The partner's dad bankrolls the business. 193 00:11:28,520 --> 00:11:31,640 Speaker 2: A few years later, Franklin buys the partner out. 194 00:11:32,080 --> 00:11:35,000 Speaker 1: I Benjamin Franklin of Philadelphia Printer. 195 00:11:35,360 --> 00:11:38,800 Speaker 2: Here he is working for himself, Scott his business, and 196 00:11:39,040 --> 00:11:43,320 Speaker 2: in seventeen thirty three, when he's not yet thirty years old, 197 00:11:43,800 --> 00:11:48,120 Speaker 2: he finds the formula that's gonna make him rich. He 198 00:11:48,200 --> 00:11:51,359 Speaker 2: publishes the first edition of Poor Richard's Almanac. 199 00:11:51,559 --> 00:11:54,040 Speaker 1: Do we know who Poor Richard is? It's like silence, 200 00:11:54,120 --> 00:11:57,400 Speaker 1: do good. It's Richard Saunders. It's a character he makes up. 201 00:11:56,840 --> 00:12:00,520 Speaker 2: A plain, homespun man who you know, knows the basic, 202 00:12:00,840 --> 00:12:04,080 Speaker 2: earthy truths of the world. So let's talk about almanacs 203 00:12:04,200 --> 00:12:07,400 Speaker 2: for a minute. Oh, I love love almanac. An amazing 204 00:12:07,440 --> 00:12:10,839 Speaker 2: business model, right because you got to buy one every year. 205 00:12:10,880 --> 00:12:14,480 Speaker 1: There's an almanac for the we should describe this an almanac. 206 00:12:15,160 --> 00:12:18,040 Speaker 1: It's like a calendar, but it has predictions for the weather, 207 00:12:18,160 --> 00:12:20,800 Speaker 1: implanting seasons. It tells you when the sun is going 208 00:12:20,840 --> 00:12:23,559 Speaker 1: to come up, how long the days are super important, 209 00:12:23,880 --> 00:12:27,719 Speaker 1: tells you when holidays are and Saints' Days and all 210 00:12:27,760 --> 00:12:30,680 Speaker 1: these things you might want to know. I notice from 211 00:12:30,760 --> 00:12:33,520 Speaker 1: looking back to Poor Richard's almanacs that it's always like 212 00:12:33,880 --> 00:12:38,960 Speaker 1: the third year since leap year. Okay, good to know, 213 00:12:39,559 --> 00:12:42,400 Speaker 1: thanks for reminding us. So it's a good business because 214 00:12:42,440 --> 00:12:45,400 Speaker 1: they sell them every year. It's a bad business because 215 00:12:45,440 --> 00:12:47,520 Speaker 1: everybody sells them. It's not a secret that it's a 216 00:12:47,520 --> 00:12:49,800 Speaker 1: good business. So it's a commodity, right, And one of 217 00:12:49,840 --> 00:12:52,360 Speaker 1: the great themes of business history, the. 218 00:12:52,360 --> 00:12:56,760 Speaker 2: Show and the history itself is that commodity businesses are 219 00:12:56,840 --> 00:12:57,839 Speaker 2: terrible businesses to. 220 00:12:57,800 --> 00:13:00,560 Speaker 1: Be in because there's all this competition. They drive down 221 00:13:00,559 --> 00:13:02,679 Speaker 1: the price. That's the only thing you can compete on, 222 00:13:02,920 --> 00:13:05,160 Speaker 1: and you're just not going to make any money. American 223 00:13:05,200 --> 00:13:08,840 Speaker 1: businesses love being a monopoly, hate being a commodity. 224 00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:10,960 Speaker 2: So if you're in a commodity business, you want to 225 00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:17,480 Speaker 2: differentiate your product. And Franklin to differentiate his product to 226 00:13:17,559 --> 00:13:20,360 Speaker 2: make it a premium brand instead of a commodity creates 227 00:13:20,440 --> 00:13:25,720 Speaker 2: this character creates Poor Richard, and Poor Richard writes these 228 00:13:25,800 --> 00:13:30,199 Speaker 2: little aphorisms in the margins of the almanac. And we've 229 00:13:30,240 --> 00:13:31,439 Speaker 2: actually got a. 230 00:13:31,440 --> 00:13:33,120 Speaker 1: Page and it says in this by the way, that 231 00:13:33,200 --> 00:13:36,480 Speaker 1: this is for Philadelphia, but it will serve all the 232 00:13:36,520 --> 00:13:38,520 Speaker 1: eastern seaboard down to the south. 233 00:13:39,440 --> 00:13:41,720 Speaker 2: Right, because I suppose some of the details would vary 234 00:13:42,200 --> 00:13:45,120 Speaker 2: by geography. And so you look at this page and 235 00:13:45,160 --> 00:13:48,240 Speaker 2: it's an incredible amount of information jammed in. It's one page, 236 00:13:48,320 --> 00:13:50,400 Speaker 2: and the days and the month are laid out in 237 00:13:50,440 --> 00:13:51,239 Speaker 2: two columns. 238 00:13:51,360 --> 00:13:53,480 Speaker 1: I have to say, I'm looking at something more than 239 00:13:53,480 --> 00:13:57,800 Speaker 1: two hundred years ago, right, But it kind of nails 240 00:13:57,840 --> 00:13:59,520 Speaker 1: the weather a little bit. I guess the weather hasn't 241 00:13:59,600 --> 00:14:01,920 Speaker 1: changed that much in New York City over two hundred years. 242 00:14:01,960 --> 00:14:08,640 Speaker 1: So there's cloudy, wet weather and perhaps thunder or high winds. 243 00:14:08,800 --> 00:14:12,000 Speaker 2: Check, check, check, and check. Nailed it. But then again, hits. 244 00:14:12,000 --> 00:14:14,800 Speaker 2: It's like a horoscope that says, like an interesting person 245 00:14:14,880 --> 00:14:18,040 Speaker 2: will cross your path. This is every almanac so far, right. 246 00:14:18,200 --> 00:14:20,880 Speaker 2: The thing that makes Poor Richard's different, the thing that 247 00:14:20,960 --> 00:14:23,520 Speaker 2: sets it apart, is jammed in over there in the 248 00:14:23,600 --> 00:14:25,680 Speaker 2: right hand column where it's like talking about the phases 249 00:14:25,680 --> 00:14:29,000 Speaker 2: of the moon and stuff. Jammed in there in italics 250 00:14:29,160 --> 00:14:32,480 Speaker 2: are these aphorisms. And in fact, there's one here in 251 00:14:32,560 --> 00:14:35,520 Speaker 2: late May in this eighteen thirty three almanac where we're reading. 252 00:14:35,920 --> 00:14:39,960 Speaker 1: Read it to us the poor have little beggars none, 253 00:14:40,280 --> 00:14:44,960 Speaker 1: the rich too much enough. Not one. 254 00:14:45,200 --> 00:14:45,760 Speaker 2: Pretty good. 255 00:14:46,040 --> 00:14:48,880 Speaker 1: I know two hundred years later, that's still pretty good. 256 00:14:48,960 --> 00:14:50,920 Speaker 1: You could scrawl that on a wall somewhere and people 257 00:14:50,960 --> 00:14:53,040 Speaker 1: will be like, yeah, dude, yeah, put it. 258 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:55,920 Speaker 2: On your TikTok, just just TikTok. Think of just like 259 00:14:55,960 --> 00:15:01,440 Speaker 2: the ocean. These aphorisms are gonna distinguish the book, and 260 00:15:01,440 --> 00:15:05,600 Speaker 2: they're gonna become part of the American vernacular, maybe part 261 00:15:05,640 --> 00:15:08,480 Speaker 2: of the American psyche. You know them already, like you 262 00:15:08,720 --> 00:15:09,400 Speaker 2: read some of them. 263 00:15:09,600 --> 00:15:11,960 Speaker 1: Yeah, and think about it. By the way, in an almanac, 264 00:15:12,160 --> 00:15:14,880 Speaker 1: everyone's kind of checking the same day at the same time. 265 00:15:15,200 --> 00:15:17,240 Speaker 1: And if you have Poor Richard's everyone sort of reading 266 00:15:17,280 --> 00:15:19,840 Speaker 1: the same inspirational quote at the same time. So when 267 00:15:19,880 --> 00:15:20,960 Speaker 1: you go down to the. 268 00:15:20,920 --> 00:15:23,720 Speaker 2: Tavern water Cooler TV show, Yeah, and when you go 269 00:15:23,760 --> 00:15:26,440 Speaker 2: down to the tavern and it looks like the proprietor 270 00:15:26,520 --> 00:15:29,480 Speaker 2: of the tavern is stressed out, you say, no. 271 00:15:29,560 --> 00:15:33,520 Speaker 1: Gains without pains. It's one of the aphorisms. God helps 272 00:15:33,560 --> 00:15:36,640 Speaker 1: those who help themselves. I just feel like everyone knows this, right, 273 00:15:36,880 --> 00:15:39,680 Speaker 1: He who multiplies riches, multiplies care. 274 00:15:40,120 --> 00:15:42,160 Speaker 2: More money, more problems. We say today. 275 00:15:42,080 --> 00:15:45,400 Speaker 1: Necessity never made a good bargain, but smart, I feel 276 00:15:45,440 --> 00:15:48,840 Speaker 1: like these are all just things, Dad say, would you persuade? 277 00:15:49,040 --> 00:15:51,360 Speaker 1: Speak of interest, not of reason? 278 00:15:51,520 --> 00:15:54,400 Speaker 2: I love this one for like convincing people on social media. Right, 279 00:15:54,440 --> 00:15:57,040 Speaker 2: don't tell them why you're right, tell them how you're 280 00:15:57,400 --> 00:15:58,200 Speaker 2: going to help them. 281 00:15:58,520 --> 00:16:01,920 Speaker 1: Early to bed, early to rise? Do I even need 282 00:16:01,960 --> 00:16:03,760 Speaker 1: to finish this one? You do not? 283 00:16:04,160 --> 00:16:07,200 Speaker 2: We are all wise to it now. I should say 284 00:16:07,400 --> 00:16:11,280 Speaker 2: that most of the aphorisms, including this one, already existed 285 00:16:11,320 --> 00:16:14,280 Speaker 2: in some form or another. Right, Franklin didn't make him up. 286 00:16:14,280 --> 00:16:16,120 Speaker 2: He didn't claim to have made them up. He said 287 00:16:16,120 --> 00:16:18,640 Speaker 2: he he took them from elsewhere. But a lot of 288 00:16:18,680 --> 00:16:22,680 Speaker 2: them he sharpened, he edited, he punched them up. There's 289 00:16:22,720 --> 00:16:26,320 Speaker 2: this Walter Isaacson biography of Ben Franklin, good biography, and 290 00:16:26,680 --> 00:16:31,240 Speaker 2: he has some nice examples of how Franklin did this. So, 291 00:16:31,360 --> 00:16:36,600 Speaker 2: for example, there was an English aphorism that went fresh 292 00:16:36,600 --> 00:16:40,680 Speaker 2: fish and newcome guests smell, but they are three days old. 293 00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:42,960 Speaker 1: And Franklin, the printer, by the way, he has to 294 00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:46,320 Speaker 1: fit this in such a tiny little space. He rewrites 295 00:16:46,320 --> 00:16:50,440 Speaker 1: it as fish and visitors stink in three days. 296 00:16:51,080 --> 00:16:53,600 Speaker 2: That's a great edit. Great at it. 297 00:16:53,760 --> 00:16:55,640 Speaker 1: People must have must have guffawed. 298 00:16:55,800 --> 00:16:59,120 Speaker 2: People must have guffawed. Okay, another one the original version. 299 00:16:59,680 --> 00:17:02,200 Speaker 2: Three may keep a secret if two of them are away. 300 00:17:02,680 --> 00:17:05,520 Speaker 1: Franklin had notes he made it. Three may keep a 301 00:17:05,560 --> 00:17:07,760 Speaker 1: secret if two of them are dead. 302 00:17:08,320 --> 00:17:11,400 Speaker 2: Very good. So Poor Richards is the best seller. It's 303 00:17:11,480 --> 00:17:15,520 Speaker 2: the best. It sells more copies than anything but the Bible. 304 00:17:15,639 --> 00:17:18,879 Speaker 2: And now Ben Franklin is on his way. Give me 305 00:17:18,880 --> 00:17:21,159 Speaker 2: one more aphorism before they add break. Robert Smith. 306 00:17:21,359 --> 00:17:23,520 Speaker 1: You know there are only two things inevitable in life, 307 00:17:23,840 --> 00:17:25,680 Speaker 1: death and going to the ad. 308 00:17:25,680 --> 00:17:45,240 Speaker 3: Break. 309 00:17:50,720 --> 00:17:53,920 Speaker 2: We're back from the ad and Ben Franklin is doing great, 310 00:17:54,640 --> 00:17:57,520 Speaker 2: selling tons of copies of Poor Richard. He does this 311 00:17:57,520 --> 00:18:01,040 Speaker 2: thing where when he's got good, promising employees, he sends 312 00:18:01,080 --> 00:18:03,240 Speaker 2: them off to other cities to start their own print shops, 313 00:18:03,640 --> 00:18:06,040 Speaker 2: stakes them gets a share in the profits. It's like 314 00:18:06,080 --> 00:18:11,240 Speaker 2: he's a incubator, a little print shop VC. And in 315 00:18:11,600 --> 00:18:14,320 Speaker 2: seven forty eight, when he is forty two years old. 316 00:18:14,359 --> 00:18:17,280 Speaker 2: Ben Franklin makes a deal with the foreman of his 317 00:18:17,320 --> 00:18:21,000 Speaker 2: print shop. The foreman will take over the business. Franklin 318 00:18:21,040 --> 00:18:23,719 Speaker 2: will retire and get half of the profits for the 319 00:18:23,760 --> 00:18:25,240 Speaker 2: next eighteen years. 320 00:18:25,280 --> 00:18:27,360 Speaker 1: Forty two years old and retired. 321 00:18:27,960 --> 00:18:28,720 Speaker 2: Live in the dream. 322 00:18:28,960 --> 00:18:31,720 Speaker 1: This is the dream. He'd be huge on Reddit, right, he'll. 323 00:18:31,520 --> 00:18:34,320 Speaker 2: Be huge on Reddit. And you know he's gonna invent 324 00:18:34,560 --> 00:18:37,720 Speaker 2: five vocals. He's gonna be a founding father. He's gonna 325 00:18:38,160 --> 00:18:40,720 Speaker 2: fly a kite in a lightning storm and make fundamental 326 00:18:40,760 --> 00:18:44,880 Speaker 2: discoveries about the nature of electricity. And I should also 327 00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:47,520 Speaker 2: mention that as a wealthy man, Ben Franklin will buy 328 00:18:47,560 --> 00:18:50,760 Speaker 2: at least seven enslaved people who will work for him 329 00:18:50,800 --> 00:18:53,760 Speaker 2: as household servants over the course of the next several decades. 330 00:18:54,320 --> 00:18:56,760 Speaker 2: Although at the end of his life Franklin will become 331 00:18:56,840 --> 00:19:01,080 Speaker 2: president of the Philadelphia Abolition Society and will petition Congress 332 00:19:01,119 --> 00:19:06,760 Speaker 2: to abolish slavery unsuccessfully. He will also keep writing for 333 00:19:06,840 --> 00:19:09,880 Speaker 2: the rest of his life. Poor Richards keeps coming out 334 00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:12,320 Speaker 2: every year even after he hands out the business. It 335 00:19:12,400 --> 00:19:16,760 Speaker 2: is a cash cow after all. Until finally, in seventeen 336 00:19:16,880 --> 00:19:20,439 Speaker 2: fifty seven, Ben Franklin decides that's enough of Poor Richard. 337 00:19:20,560 --> 00:19:22,120 Speaker 1: He's dispensed all the wisdom he has. 338 00:19:22,200 --> 00:19:25,680 Speaker 2: That's it, there's no more aphorisms. Shut it down. Seventeen fifty. 339 00:19:25,720 --> 00:19:28,080 Speaker 2: It's going to be the last ever Poor Richard's Almanac 340 00:19:28,119 --> 00:19:29,440 Speaker 2: and a big retirement tour. 341 00:19:29,640 --> 00:19:30,879 Speaker 1: How are we going to know what the weather in 342 00:19:30,880 --> 00:19:32,280 Speaker 1: New York City in May is going to be? 343 00:19:32,480 --> 00:19:36,280 Speaker 2: You're going to have to guess cloudy. And by this 344 00:19:36,320 --> 00:19:40,240 Speaker 2: time he's already Benjamin Franklin, American statesman. He gets on 345 00:19:40,280 --> 00:19:43,480 Speaker 2: a ship to England. It's going to go petition some 346 00:19:43,520 --> 00:19:46,160 Speaker 2: people in England about a fight over taxas of course 347 00:19:46,200 --> 00:19:49,879 Speaker 2: what people are always fighting over. But his ship gets stalled. 348 00:19:49,880 --> 00:19:52,400 Speaker 2: It has to anchor just off the New Jersey shore 349 00:19:52,480 --> 00:19:55,160 Speaker 2: for a couple weeks because there's a French squadron nearby, 350 00:19:55,800 --> 00:19:57,959 Speaker 2: and the captain's afraid they're going to get captured by 351 00:19:57,960 --> 00:20:01,080 Speaker 2: the French. So here's Ben Franklin stuck on a ship. 352 00:20:01,680 --> 00:20:05,080 Speaker 2: He pulls out his quill and he starts writing, and 353 00:20:05,119 --> 00:20:08,800 Speaker 2: what he writes is going to become the most widely 354 00:20:08,880 --> 00:20:13,080 Speaker 2: reprinted work about economics for the next two hundred and 355 00:20:13,200 --> 00:20:14,600 Speaker 2: fifty years. 356 00:20:14,960 --> 00:20:17,440 Speaker 1: This is before Adam Smith, but of course Adam Smith 357 00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:19,159 Speaker 1: wrote like five volumes. 358 00:20:20,640 --> 00:20:23,359 Speaker 2: Yes, it's a mechodontics, the most influential. You're asking, why 359 00:20:23,400 --> 00:20:25,359 Speaker 2: wasn't Adam Smith? Adams Smith was not a best seller 360 00:20:25,440 --> 00:20:26,080 Speaker 2: the way he was. 361 00:20:26,119 --> 00:20:28,880 Speaker 1: Having tried to read Wealth of Nations, you could see 362 00:20:28,880 --> 00:20:31,120 Speaker 1: why I wasn't a best seller. Not a best seller. 363 00:20:31,240 --> 00:20:32,080 Speaker 1: It's a little dense. 364 00:20:32,160 --> 00:20:36,160 Speaker 2: Yeah, so what Franklin writes is a much easier read 365 00:20:36,359 --> 00:20:39,840 Speaker 2: than Wealth of Nations. It's basically Poor Richard's greatest hits. 366 00:20:39,840 --> 00:20:42,360 Speaker 2: It's the greatest hits album, the best aphorisms from over 367 00:20:42,400 --> 00:20:46,639 Speaker 2: the past decades. And this time the aphorisms are not 368 00:20:46,760 --> 00:20:49,439 Speaker 2: going to be sprinkled throughout the tiede charts and the 369 00:20:49,480 --> 00:20:54,120 Speaker 2: horoscope entries. They'll be published as an introduction right at 370 00:20:54,119 --> 00:20:56,840 Speaker 2: the beginning of this final almanac. And you know the 371 00:20:56,880 --> 00:21:02,159 Speaker 2: way he puts them together. It becomes this guide to living, 372 00:21:02,320 --> 00:21:06,000 Speaker 2: and crucially for our purposes, becomes a guide to business, 373 00:21:06,040 --> 00:21:08,080 Speaker 2: a guide to making and keeping. 374 00:21:07,800 --> 00:21:12,160 Speaker 1: Money, which is super interesting at the time because if 375 00:21:12,160 --> 00:21:15,199 Speaker 1: you imagine that for hundreds of years there was no 376 00:21:15,359 --> 00:21:17,480 Speaker 1: guide to living other than the Bible. There was a 377 00:21:17,520 --> 00:21:20,360 Speaker 1: moral guide, but you expected to do the same job 378 00:21:20,400 --> 00:21:22,720 Speaker 1: as your father. You didn't expect to make more money. 379 00:21:22,720 --> 00:21:26,680 Speaker 1: You expected to just get by, So having someone give 380 00:21:26,720 --> 00:21:28,960 Speaker 1: you advice about how to climb the ladder and be 381 00:21:29,080 --> 00:21:33,840 Speaker 1: successful wouldn't have even tracked. But we're seeing the very 382 00:21:33,840 --> 00:21:38,159 Speaker 1: beginnings of the Industrial Revolution and a society where people 383 00:21:38,280 --> 00:21:42,920 Speaker 1: are changing. They are rapidly becoming richer in the colonies, 384 00:21:42,960 --> 00:21:44,400 Speaker 1: and they're about to set their own destiny. 385 00:21:44,640 --> 00:21:49,520 Speaker 2: Yes, yes, Franklin is coming along at this profound transformation 386 00:21:49,600 --> 00:21:51,960 Speaker 2: in economic history. Right, this is the very beginning of 387 00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:54,720 Speaker 2: the Industrial Revolution. It hasn't even come to the US yet, 388 00:21:54,880 --> 00:21:57,840 Speaker 2: and he is. He is writing to meet this moment. 389 00:21:58,040 --> 00:22:00,800 Speaker 2: So there's a couple pieces of his writing that we're 390 00:22:00,800 --> 00:22:02,560 Speaker 2: going to talk about in detail. This is the first 391 00:22:02,560 --> 00:22:05,240 Speaker 2: of the two, so let's talk about it. This piece 392 00:22:05,280 --> 00:22:07,919 Speaker 2: of writing is of course written in the voice of 393 00:22:07,960 --> 00:22:11,320 Speaker 2: poor Richard, but the opening is classic, Ben Franklin, give 394 00:22:11,320 --> 00:22:11,679 Speaker 2: it to us. 395 00:22:11,720 --> 00:22:14,800 Speaker 1: I heard that nothing gives an author so great pleasure 396 00:22:15,040 --> 00:22:18,680 Speaker 1: as to find his works respectfully quoted by other learned authors. 397 00:22:19,160 --> 00:22:21,000 Speaker 1: This pleasure I have seldom enjoyed. 398 00:22:21,920 --> 00:22:24,760 Speaker 2: Thank you, Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. Well played, 399 00:22:24,800 --> 00:22:27,919 Speaker 2: little Toastmasterard. Okay, so right, so self deprecation. Fine, but 400 00:22:27,960 --> 00:22:30,320 Speaker 2: then look at the pivot in the next paragraph. 401 00:22:30,400 --> 00:22:33,679 Speaker 1: I concluded at length that the people were the best 402 00:22:33,760 --> 00:22:36,480 Speaker 1: judges of my merit before they buy my works. 403 00:22:37,080 --> 00:22:39,080 Speaker 2: It's sure I didn't get a great review in the 404 00:22:39,119 --> 00:22:42,000 Speaker 2: New York Times, but on top of the bestseller list. 405 00:22:42,040 --> 00:22:44,840 Speaker 1: Maybe it's kind of a radical notion to be like, 406 00:22:45,280 --> 00:22:49,520 Speaker 1: I am proud of the fact that I sold a 407 00:22:49,560 --> 00:22:50,160 Speaker 1: bunch of cops. 408 00:22:50,200 --> 00:22:52,520 Speaker 2: Ben Franklin man of the people, Right, it's very man 409 00:22:52,560 --> 00:22:54,439 Speaker 2: of the people, Poor Richard, man of the people, and 410 00:22:54,480 --> 00:22:57,879 Speaker 2: then gets a little bit kind of Russian dollie. Poor 411 00:22:57,960 --> 00:23:01,640 Speaker 2: Richard tells a story, right, Franklin's writing Poor Richard's selling 412 00:23:01,640 --> 00:23:04,320 Speaker 2: a story. Poor Richard says, I went to this auction, 413 00:23:05,600 --> 00:23:09,320 Speaker 2: and everybody's standing around before the auction starts, and they 414 00:23:09,359 --> 00:23:12,840 Speaker 2: ask this old man named Father Abraham what he thought 415 00:23:12,960 --> 00:23:13,960 Speaker 2: about taxes. 416 00:23:14,119 --> 00:23:16,840 Speaker 1: To be clear, Father Abraham is another made up every. 417 00:23:16,680 --> 00:23:18,720 Speaker 2: Thing's made up. Then Franklin is a real guy. Everybody 418 00:23:18,720 --> 00:23:22,000 Speaker 2: else is made up. And in response to this question 419 00:23:22,040 --> 00:23:26,440 Speaker 2: about taxes, Father Abraham gives this talk, which is kind 420 00:23:26,440 --> 00:23:30,080 Speaker 2: of a sermon, but it's not about religion. It's about 421 00:23:30,200 --> 00:23:35,360 Speaker 2: work and money, and it is Father Abraham explicitly quoting 422 00:23:35,400 --> 00:23:39,280 Speaker 2: Poor Richard. So it's like a Russian doll. Franklin, Poor Richard, 423 00:23:39,280 --> 00:23:43,240 Speaker 2: Father Abraham, Poor Richard in the middle, and Father Abraham 424 00:23:43,400 --> 00:23:51,360 Speaker 2: lays out this very coherent worldview about money. First, he says, Oh, 425 00:23:51,520 --> 00:23:54,320 Speaker 2: you guys are complaining about paying taxes, But the way 426 00:23:54,320 --> 00:23:58,320 Speaker 2: you waste your time, it's like you're taxing yourself. Robert, 427 00:23:58,320 --> 00:23:59,360 Speaker 2: give us, give us a little bit. 428 00:24:00,119 --> 00:24:04,200 Speaker 1: We are taxed twice as much by our idleness. Dost 429 00:24:04,280 --> 00:24:08,000 Speaker 1: thou love life, then do not squander time, for that's 430 00:24:08,160 --> 00:24:11,440 Speaker 1: the stuff life is made of, as Poor Richard says. 431 00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:14,800 Speaker 1: It will be sleeping enough in the grave, as Poor 432 00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:18,080 Speaker 1: Richard says, and as everyone says on LinkedIn to this deck. 433 00:24:18,040 --> 00:24:20,320 Speaker 2: Yes, yes, I'll sleep when I'm dead. And then a 434 00:24:20,320 --> 00:24:23,600 Speaker 2: bunch of writing about the value of hard work, and 435 00:24:23,640 --> 00:24:27,479 Speaker 2: then interestingly, the idea that work itself makes you happy. 436 00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:32,520 Speaker 1: Trouble springs from idleness and grievous toil from needless ease, 437 00:24:32,920 --> 00:24:36,639 Speaker 1: whereas industry gives comfort and plenty and respect. 438 00:24:37,520 --> 00:24:42,200 Speaker 2: And finally, classic Poor Richard favorite of cheap dads everywhere, 439 00:24:42,520 --> 00:24:44,640 Speaker 2: beware of little expenses. 440 00:24:44,760 --> 00:24:48,359 Speaker 1: A small leak will sink a great ship. Poor Dick says, 441 00:24:48,680 --> 00:24:52,520 Speaker 1: tis easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy 442 00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:54,000 Speaker 1: all that follow it. 443 00:24:54,160 --> 00:24:56,520 Speaker 2: Don't spend money. You don't have to spend Sometimes, when you. 444 00:24:56,480 --> 00:24:59,080 Speaker 1: See this save your money, work hard kind of advice, 445 00:24:59,119 --> 00:25:02,560 Speaker 1: you suspect that, like, eh probably runs a corporation or 446 00:25:02,600 --> 00:25:04,919 Speaker 1: something like he sits on a boat and lives a 447 00:25:04,960 --> 00:25:05,639 Speaker 1: life of leisure. 448 00:25:05,760 --> 00:25:07,960 Speaker 2: And Franklin is literally sitting on a boat as he's 449 00:25:08,040 --> 00:25:11,000 Speaker 2: riding this. But I don't think he is cynical in 450 00:25:11,040 --> 00:25:13,040 Speaker 2: that way. I think he truly believes it. I mean, 451 00:25:13,080 --> 00:25:16,320 Speaker 2: to me, like a more resonant critique is like d H. 452 00:25:16,440 --> 00:25:21,120 Speaker 2: Lawrence wrote this takedown we'd call it today of Franklin's writing, 453 00:25:21,480 --> 00:25:24,359 Speaker 2: which is basically like it's so hemmed in. He says, 454 00:25:24,400 --> 00:25:27,520 Speaker 2: Franklin like built himself a corral. Franklin was a horse, 455 00:25:27,560 --> 00:25:29,919 Speaker 2: and he built himself a corral of these kind of 456 00:25:30,200 --> 00:25:33,320 Speaker 2: bourgeois morals and lived inside of it. And Dave Lawrence 457 00:25:33,359 --> 00:25:34,919 Speaker 2: is like, I want to be, you know, the wild 458 00:25:34,960 --> 00:25:37,440 Speaker 2: man in the woods. Don't fence me in, Ben Franklin. 459 00:25:37,480 --> 00:25:40,199 Speaker 2: To me, that's a more resonant critique. This is the 460 00:25:40,320 --> 00:25:45,560 Speaker 2: end of the Father Abraham sermon inside of this little essay, 461 00:25:46,280 --> 00:25:49,560 Speaker 2: and at the end Franklin cuts back to poor Richard, 462 00:25:50,040 --> 00:25:52,399 Speaker 2: who's been watching the talk, and who describes what happens 463 00:25:52,400 --> 00:25:54,240 Speaker 2: in this, you know, fictional scene at the end. 464 00:25:54,560 --> 00:25:58,119 Speaker 1: The people heard it and approved the doctrine and immediately 465 00:25:58,160 --> 00:26:00,560 Speaker 1: practice the contrary, just as if it had been a 466 00:26:00,600 --> 00:26:01,760 Speaker 1: common sermon. 467 00:26:01,640 --> 00:26:04,600 Speaker 2: Right, he says. They immediately afterwards, the auction starts and 468 00:26:04,640 --> 00:26:07,600 Speaker 2: they buy all this stuff they don't need. And you know, 469 00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:12,920 Speaker 2: all of these aphorisms, all this advice. It reads very today, right, 470 00:26:12,960 --> 00:26:15,879 Speaker 2: it reads very kind of obvious and not that interesting. 471 00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:21,680 Speaker 2: But at the time a sort of coherent essay about 472 00:26:21,800 --> 00:26:23,960 Speaker 2: kind of money and how you should handle money was 473 00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:26,720 Speaker 2: a new thing in the world for ordinary people. They're 474 00:26:26,760 --> 00:26:30,119 Speaker 2: about to write, All men are created equal. And what 475 00:26:30,160 --> 00:26:33,480 Speaker 2: he's saying here is that all men can also be 476 00:26:33,680 --> 00:26:36,000 Speaker 2: rich and save money and make the most of their 477 00:26:36,040 --> 00:26:39,120 Speaker 2: lives through work. Yes, or at least the right men. 478 00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:40,879 Speaker 2: We know in fact that all men are created equal 479 00:26:41,040 --> 00:26:43,480 Speaker 2: was a lie at that time. But yes, and this 480 00:26:43,720 --> 00:26:48,440 Speaker 2: idea of a business book for the masses, this is new, 481 00:26:49,280 --> 00:26:53,080 Speaker 2: which is why it becomes wildly popular. Separate from poor Richard, 482 00:26:53,080 --> 00:26:56,800 Speaker 2: this just this little introduction gets reprinted. It's titled The 483 00:26:56,840 --> 00:27:00,960 Speaker 2: Way to Wealth, and it's a runaway bestseller in America. 484 00:27:01,040 --> 00:27:05,760 Speaker 2: It's translated into i believe, twenty six languages, published and 485 00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:09,600 Speaker 2: republished in a thousand different editions well into the eighteen hundreds. 486 00:27:10,200 --> 00:27:14,400 Speaker 2: And you know, it creates this genre of financial self help. 487 00:27:14,760 --> 00:27:17,480 Speaker 1: I imagine a lot of those copies were passed on 488 00:27:17,640 --> 00:27:20,880 Speaker 1: to a wayward youth from a concern father and mother. 489 00:27:21,280 --> 00:27:25,119 Speaker 2: It's perfect, a perfect graduation gift. There is this interesting 490 00:27:25,680 --> 00:27:29,639 Speaker 2: article that was published in twenty fifteen about this book 491 00:27:30,119 --> 00:27:33,159 Speaker 2: made the argument that it was the most widely reprinted 492 00:27:33,240 --> 00:27:37,200 Speaker 2: economic work until Chairman Mao's Little Read Book two hundred 493 00:27:37,240 --> 00:27:40,639 Speaker 2: years later. Not such good economic advice in that one. 494 00:27:40,520 --> 00:27:41,879 Speaker 1: Also not willingly bought. 495 00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:45,480 Speaker 2: But yes, there was no money. How could you be 496 00:27:45,560 --> 00:27:48,879 Speaker 2: willib Levi something if there's no money. Here's the interesting 497 00:27:48,880 --> 00:27:51,240 Speaker 2: thing from this article. The author writes that The Way 498 00:27:51,280 --> 00:27:55,000 Speaker 2: to Wealth is the moment at which the colonies began 499 00:27:55,040 --> 00:27:59,280 Speaker 2: their assent to global predominance in the production and dissemination 500 00:27:59,520 --> 00:28:01,480 Speaker 2: of economic culture. 501 00:28:01,800 --> 00:28:02,880 Speaker 1: Economic culture. 502 00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:07,160 Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, so he's saying this little essay by Franklin, 503 00:28:07,200 --> 00:28:11,080 Speaker 2: The Way to Wealth, this is the moment when the colonies, 504 00:28:11,119 --> 00:28:13,919 Speaker 2: what will become the United States starts to become the 505 00:28:13,960 --> 00:28:17,040 Speaker 2: place that the world looks to to think about the 506 00:28:17,200 --> 00:28:19,600 Speaker 2: meaning of economics and business. 507 00:28:19,320 --> 00:28:20,399 Speaker 1: Which is fascinating. 508 00:28:20,480 --> 00:28:20,640 Speaker 3: Right. 509 00:28:20,880 --> 00:28:25,159 Speaker 1: We talk about Adam Smith as the intellectual father of capitalism, 510 00:28:25,200 --> 00:28:28,960 Speaker 1: we talk about the birth of the Industrial Revolution, but 511 00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:32,880 Speaker 1: this is saying something slightly different, which is this way 512 00:28:32,920 --> 00:28:37,240 Speaker 1: of valuing work and money that in fact money and 513 00:28:37,280 --> 00:28:40,120 Speaker 1: work is culture and will become this export of the 514 00:28:40,240 --> 00:28:41,640 Speaker 1: United States. It happens here. 515 00:28:42,040 --> 00:28:44,240 Speaker 2: This is the moment it starts to happen. And in 516 00:28:44,280 --> 00:28:47,520 Speaker 2: a minute we'll talk about the other piece of Franklin's 517 00:28:47,520 --> 00:28:49,880 Speaker 2: writing that actually takes this idea further that and if 518 00:28:49,880 --> 00:28:53,280 Speaker 2: that goes deeper than these aphorisms to talk about the 519 00:28:53,360 --> 00:29:18,640 Speaker 2: meaning of making money after the break, all right, that's 520 00:29:18,680 --> 00:29:21,400 Speaker 2: the end of the ads. Let's go back to Ben Franklin. 521 00:29:22,080 --> 00:29:24,760 Speaker 2: There is one other piece of den Franklin's writing that's 522 00:29:24,800 --> 00:29:27,760 Speaker 2: worth spending some time on. It's an essay he wrote 523 00:29:27,760 --> 00:29:31,520 Speaker 2: in seventeen forty eight, right after he retired, and it's 524 00:29:31,560 --> 00:29:35,880 Speaker 2: called Advice to a Young Tradesman, written by an old. 525 00:29:35,680 --> 00:29:38,800 Speaker 1: One, an old one meaning him. It's not a fake nas. 526 00:29:38,720 --> 00:29:41,080 Speaker 2: There is no silence, do good here. And this one 527 00:29:41,240 --> 00:29:44,480 Speaker 2: was not an airport style bestseller like The Way to 528 00:29:44,520 --> 00:29:47,560 Speaker 2: Wealth or Poor Richard's Almanac, maybe because it was a 529 00:29:47,600 --> 00:29:50,640 Speaker 2: little bit more complex. It got a little deeper into ideas, 530 00:29:51,200 --> 00:29:56,200 Speaker 2: and in the twentieth century historians and social scientists would 531 00:29:56,200 --> 00:29:59,200 Speaker 2: come back and look at this essay as like a 532 00:29:59,320 --> 00:30:03,480 Speaker 2: key to understanding how business and work fit into sort 533 00:30:03,520 --> 00:30:07,080 Speaker 2: of the soul of America. So Robert, give me the 534 00:30:07,120 --> 00:30:12,000 Speaker 2: first how many five words from advice to it? 535 00:30:12,080 --> 00:30:15,600 Speaker 1: Young tradesmen and everyone listening at home can can read 536 00:30:15,600 --> 00:30:17,480 Speaker 1: along by memory because you know this one. The first 537 00:30:17,520 --> 00:30:20,880 Speaker 1: five words are remember the time is money. 538 00:30:21,120 --> 00:30:25,360 Speaker 2: Time is money. I think this one he may have 539 00:30:25,400 --> 00:30:27,400 Speaker 2: come up with. I look to see if, like the 540 00:30:27,440 --> 00:30:30,080 Speaker 2: other aphorisms, what did everybody say this one? As far 541 00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:33,320 Speaker 2: as I know, this is Ben Franklin, And you could 542 00:30:33,440 --> 00:30:37,479 Speaker 2: argue that time is money is the capitalist worldview in 543 00:30:37,640 --> 00:30:42,000 Speaker 2: three simple words. I like, think about it, think about 544 00:30:42,040 --> 00:30:44,920 Speaker 2: America and business and time is money. You know, I 545 00:30:44,920 --> 00:30:49,800 Speaker 2: think about railroads and standard time. And Frederick Taylor in 546 00:30:50,120 --> 00:30:53,000 Speaker 2: whatever eighteen ninety stand it on the factory floor with 547 00:30:53,040 --> 00:30:56,640 Speaker 2: a stopwatch, and Henry Ford inventing the moving assembly line, 548 00:30:56,640 --> 00:30:59,719 Speaker 2: and the time clock and FedEx and fast food and 549 00:30:59,760 --> 00:31:02,080 Speaker 2: Sunday delivery and high frequency trading. 550 00:31:02,400 --> 00:31:05,080 Speaker 1: And I think of before this moment, when people were 551 00:31:05,200 --> 00:31:08,280 Speaker 1: farming and you waited for seasons, and it was more 552 00:31:08,360 --> 00:31:11,520 Speaker 1: that weather was money. Honestly, yes, yeah, this is a 553 00:31:11,560 --> 00:31:12,440 Speaker 1: real pith point. 554 00:31:12,560 --> 00:31:15,080 Speaker 2: Yes, so time is money is a pivot point. But 555 00:31:15,400 --> 00:31:18,560 Speaker 2: he goes deeper here, give me that whole first paragraph exactly. 556 00:31:18,720 --> 00:31:21,800 Speaker 1: Remember that time is money. He that can earn ten 557 00:31:21,840 --> 00:31:24,840 Speaker 1: shillings a day by his labor and sits idle, one 558 00:31:24,920 --> 00:31:28,360 Speaker 1: half of that day has really spent, or rather thrown 559 00:31:28,400 --> 00:31:29,680 Speaker 1: away five shillings. 560 00:31:29,800 --> 00:31:32,960 Speaker 2: You take half a day off, it's like you're throwing 561 00:31:33,040 --> 00:31:35,360 Speaker 2: away the money you would have made if you had work. 562 00:31:35,520 --> 00:31:37,280 Speaker 1: We call that opportunity cost. 563 00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:41,240 Speaker 2: Yes, yes, it's the cost of the option you don't choose. 564 00:31:41,720 --> 00:31:44,040 Speaker 2: We actually talked about it in the in the Ice 565 00:31:44,120 --> 00:31:44,520 Speaker 2: King Show. 566 00:31:44,560 --> 00:31:46,360 Speaker 1: We did reason one of the first things they teach 567 00:31:46,360 --> 00:31:48,320 Speaker 1: you in business schools about opportunity cost. 568 00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:52,360 Speaker 2: Now, to be clear, if the phrase opportunity cost isn't 569 00:31:52,360 --> 00:31:54,080 Speaker 2: going to be coined for like, you know, one hundred 570 00:31:54,120 --> 00:31:57,280 Speaker 2: plus years at this point, so Franklin is articulating this 571 00:31:57,360 --> 00:32:00,320 Speaker 2: big idea here. But something bigger is going on here, 572 00:32:00,360 --> 00:32:02,760 Speaker 2: and you were getting at it a minute ago. And 573 00:32:02,840 --> 00:32:06,720 Speaker 2: that is you know, he's writing this just at the 574 00:32:06,760 --> 00:32:09,320 Speaker 2: start of the industrial revolution, right, He's writing this in 575 00:32:09,440 --> 00:32:12,680 Speaker 2: essentially the pre industrial age, and he is starting to 576 00:32:12,920 --> 00:32:17,920 Speaker 2: change the way people will experience time. Arguably, there is 577 00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:22,480 Speaker 2: this famous paper about this that historian wrote. E. P. 578 00:32:22,640 --> 00:32:24,600 Speaker 2: Thompson is the name of this story, and he wrote 579 00:32:24,600 --> 00:32:29,040 Speaker 2: this paper in nineteen sixty seven. It was called Time, Work, Discipline, 580 00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:34,880 Speaker 2: and Industrial Capitalism, and that paper draws on Franklin. It 581 00:32:35,000 --> 00:32:38,400 Speaker 2: draws on this revolutionary idea that time is money, and 582 00:32:38,560 --> 00:32:43,240 Speaker 2: Thompson says, you know, before industrialization, your experience of time 583 00:32:43,280 --> 00:32:46,120 Speaker 2: was totally different. If you were a fisherman, time was 584 00:32:46,240 --> 00:32:50,200 Speaker 2: the tides, you know. If you were an artisan, it was, well, 585 00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:52,959 Speaker 2: you have to do this thing in your cottage, right, 586 00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:55,200 Speaker 2: it was a cottage indust you have to crop the 587 00:32:55,240 --> 00:32:59,080 Speaker 2: wool or whatever. It wasn't oh, there's eight hours when 588 00:32:59,080 --> 00:33:01,240 Speaker 2: I have to start working, and then I stopped because 589 00:33:01,240 --> 00:33:03,719 Speaker 2: of what the clock says. And Thompson says that the 590 00:33:03,760 --> 00:33:07,120 Speaker 2: biggest proponent of this shift, not the external shift, but 591 00:33:07,160 --> 00:33:11,080 Speaker 2: the way people actually felt about time, was Ben Franklin. 592 00:33:11,120 --> 00:33:17,280 Speaker 2: He says Franklin gave this idea its most unambiguous secular expression. 593 00:33:18,440 --> 00:33:21,680 Speaker 2: Time is money. He is telling you. Ben is telling 594 00:33:21,680 --> 00:33:23,360 Speaker 2: you feel that it is amazing. 595 00:33:23,440 --> 00:33:24,680 Speaker 1: Right. It doesn't feel to us much. 596 00:33:25,040 --> 00:33:28,240 Speaker 2: Some people say yeah, yeah, No, it's a big change 597 00:33:28,280 --> 00:33:32,080 Speaker 2: I think in human life. Frankly, okay, that paragraph one. 598 00:33:32,360 --> 00:33:36,200 Speaker 2: That's paragraph one. We got more. We got more. Paragraph three, 599 00:33:36,280 --> 00:33:37,440 Speaker 2: we got another, big idea. 600 00:33:37,840 --> 00:33:39,640 Speaker 1: Give it to me. This is like a tweet storm 601 00:33:39,680 --> 00:33:44,080 Speaker 1: here and one end. Okay, the third one is a banger. 602 00:33:44,200 --> 00:33:44,719 Speaker 2: It really is. 603 00:33:45,200 --> 00:33:50,080 Speaker 1: Remember that money is of the prolific generating nature. Money 604 00:33:50,200 --> 00:33:54,040 Speaker 1: can beget money, and its offspring can beget more, and 605 00:33:54,120 --> 00:33:57,720 Speaker 1: so on. Five shillings has turned six, turned again, it 606 00:33:57,800 --> 00:34:00,960 Speaker 1: is seven and threepence, and so on till it becomes 607 00:34:01,440 --> 00:34:03,080 Speaker 1: one hundred pounds. 608 00:34:03,800 --> 00:34:07,680 Speaker 2: Money makes money compound interest. 609 00:34:08,080 --> 00:34:10,520 Speaker 1: It's bigger than compound interests. 610 00:34:10,560 --> 00:34:11,960 Speaker 2: It's bigger than compound interest. 611 00:34:11,800 --> 00:34:19,040 Speaker 1: Because it's saying that money has a value beyond your 612 00:34:19,120 --> 00:34:22,000 Speaker 1: time and what it can buy. It says that money 613 00:34:22,239 --> 00:34:25,719 Speaker 1: is not just an end of itself. It is a 614 00:34:25,960 --> 00:34:29,640 Speaker 1: self creating thing that will create more power. Yes, it 615 00:34:29,719 --> 00:34:31,160 Speaker 1: is perhaps replacing. 616 00:34:32,440 --> 00:34:35,880 Speaker 2: Don't say god, I will say that, Okay. He wouldn't 617 00:34:35,920 --> 00:34:38,200 Speaker 2: have gone quite that far. We can talk about that. 618 00:34:38,640 --> 00:34:42,000 Speaker 2: It's a short essay, nine paragraphs in total. So far 619 00:34:42,040 --> 00:34:44,560 Speaker 2: he's taken care of the meaning of time, and of 620 00:34:44,600 --> 00:34:47,879 Speaker 2: making money, and of your money making money, and most 621 00:34:47,920 --> 00:34:50,759 Speaker 2: of the rest, interestingly, is about kind of the other 622 00:34:50,920 --> 00:34:55,279 Speaker 2: side of the capitalist coin, which is borrowing money. And 623 00:34:55,440 --> 00:34:57,799 Speaker 2: you know, he's enough of a realist, enough of a 624 00:34:57,840 --> 00:35:00,719 Speaker 2: practical businessman to know that sometimes you need to borrow money. 625 00:35:00,760 --> 00:35:03,080 Speaker 2: He doesn't have the kind of overlay simplistic, oh, never 626 00:35:03,120 --> 00:35:06,960 Speaker 2: going to debt mindset. But the key thing he says 627 00:35:07,239 --> 00:35:09,960 Speaker 2: is to have good credit, to be able to borrow 628 00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:12,319 Speaker 2: money at you know, a good rate, and he gives 629 00:35:12,400 --> 00:35:14,920 Speaker 2: very specific advice on how to have good credit. 630 00:35:15,160 --> 00:35:18,080 Speaker 1: The most trifling actions that affect a man's credit are 631 00:35:18,120 --> 00:35:21,080 Speaker 1: to be regarded. The sound of your hammer at five 632 00:35:21,120 --> 00:35:23,520 Speaker 1: in the morning or ate at night heard by a 633 00:35:23,560 --> 00:35:27,160 Speaker 1: creditor makes him easy six months longer. But if he 634 00:35:27,280 --> 00:35:30,560 Speaker 1: sees you at a billiard's table or hears your voice 635 00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:33,440 Speaker 1: at a tavern when you should be at work, he 636 00:35:33,600 --> 00:35:35,719 Speaker 1: sends for his money the next day. 637 00:35:36,360 --> 00:35:40,880 Speaker 2: So that's hilarious. Rule number one, look busy, look busy, 638 00:35:41,239 --> 00:35:42,960 Speaker 2: and he goes on to say, you know, pay back 639 00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:45,680 Speaker 2: your creditors early when you can. They love that whatever 640 00:35:45,719 --> 00:35:49,400 Speaker 2: you do, don't wear fancier clothes than your creditor. Basically, 641 00:35:49,440 --> 00:35:53,640 Speaker 2: he's telling you, before a credit score has been invented, 642 00:35:53,920 --> 00:35:55,040 Speaker 2: how to have a good credit score. 643 00:35:55,440 --> 00:35:58,600 Speaker 1: Okay, one more paragraph, Robert, give me the end of 644 00:35:58,880 --> 00:36:00,719 Speaker 1: advice to a young tradesman, and then we'll talk about 645 00:36:00,719 --> 00:36:03,040 Speaker 1: what it all means. He that gets all he can 646 00:36:03,160 --> 00:36:07,479 Speaker 1: honestly and saves all he gets necessary expenses accepted will 647 00:36:07,560 --> 00:36:12,440 Speaker 1: certainly become rich if that being who governs the world, 648 00:36:12,520 --> 00:36:14,319 Speaker 1: to whom all should look for a blessing on their 649 00:36:14,320 --> 00:36:18,840 Speaker 1: honest endeavors, doth not in his wise providence otherwise determined. 650 00:36:19,040 --> 00:36:21,759 Speaker 2: Basically, he's saying, if you do what I tell you, you'll 651 00:36:21,600 --> 00:36:26,239 Speaker 2: get rich unless God decides otherwise. Yeah, Or if you're unlucky, Yes, 652 00:36:26,320 --> 00:36:28,840 Speaker 2: that's another way to put it. Yes, the modern version, 653 00:36:29,719 --> 00:36:32,560 Speaker 2: and this last phrase that we're talking about actually gets 654 00:36:32,640 --> 00:36:34,160 Speaker 2: us to what is going to be the last big 655 00:36:34,200 --> 00:36:37,880 Speaker 2: idea in today's show, which was inspired by this essay, 656 00:36:38,560 --> 00:36:41,879 Speaker 2: and it comes from Max Weber, you may recall as 657 00:36:41,920 --> 00:36:45,680 Speaker 2: the famous German sociologist of the early twentieth century. 658 00:36:45,760 --> 00:36:46,759 Speaker 1: That's all I know about him. 659 00:36:46,920 --> 00:36:50,000 Speaker 2: You might remember, if I remind you that in nineteen 660 00:36:50,040 --> 00:36:53,080 Speaker 2: oh five he wrote The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit 661 00:36:53,120 --> 00:36:56,160 Speaker 2: of Capitalism. And as it happens, in that famous book, 662 00:36:56,400 --> 00:36:59,400 Speaker 2: the main example, the main case study, was our man 663 00:36:59,560 --> 00:37:05,280 Speaker 2: Benjamin Franklin. And in this work, in this book, Weber 664 00:37:05,400 --> 00:37:09,759 Speaker 2: looks at Franklin's writing, and he says, man Franklin, it's 665 00:37:09,800 --> 00:37:12,839 Speaker 2: not really just telling you here how to get rich. 666 00:37:13,560 --> 00:37:15,960 Speaker 2: He's telling you how to live a good life. You know, 667 00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:18,960 Speaker 2: you read Advice to a Young Tradesman, you read Poor 668 00:37:19,080 --> 00:37:23,320 Speaker 2: Richard's and you get this message that work is virtue, 669 00:37:23,920 --> 00:37:28,719 Speaker 2: and frugality is virtue, and idleness is vice. These are 670 00:37:28,719 --> 00:37:32,920 Speaker 2: not just rules, these are morals. These are ethics. But 671 00:37:32,960 --> 00:37:39,040 Speaker 2: they're ethics entirely concerned with making and keeping money. And this, 672 00:37:39,960 --> 00:37:42,000 Speaker 2: Weber argues, is a new thing. 673 00:37:41,840 --> 00:37:43,320 Speaker 1: In the world. Is weird. 674 00:37:43,360 --> 00:37:45,680 Speaker 2: It's new, is different. And look, he says, you know, 675 00:37:45,719 --> 00:37:49,080 Speaker 2: people have always wanted money. Of course, you've always wanted money, 676 00:37:49,120 --> 00:37:51,480 Speaker 2: but it has not been viewed as a virtue right. 677 00:37:51,680 --> 00:37:54,240 Speaker 1: Of quite the contrary, it was a necessity. You borrowed 678 00:37:54,239 --> 00:37:55,960 Speaker 1: money when you needed it, You let money when you 679 00:37:55,960 --> 00:37:56,720 Speaker 1: have it's agreed. 680 00:37:56,920 --> 00:38:00,640 Speaker 2: It was avarice, right, And crucially, the point of getting 681 00:38:00,719 --> 00:38:04,759 Speaker 2: rich was to buy fancy stuff, not to save all 682 00:38:04,800 --> 00:38:07,160 Speaker 2: your money, right, not to save it to make more money. 683 00:38:07,239 --> 00:38:09,920 Speaker 2: You've got rich so you could get stuff. And Weber 684 00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:12,640 Speaker 2: looks at Franklin, who's like, yes, get rich and no, 685 00:38:12,760 --> 00:38:15,879 Speaker 2: don't buy stuff, And it's like, what is going on here? 686 00:38:16,000 --> 00:38:17,000 Speaker 1: Oh, I want to do a vapor. 687 00:38:17,080 --> 00:38:17,800 Speaker 2: Yeah, do a vapor. 688 00:38:18,120 --> 00:38:21,360 Speaker 1: The passages we have quoted from Franklin and which called 689 00:38:21,400 --> 00:38:24,279 Speaker 1: forth the applause of a whole people in the Americans, 690 00:38:24,680 --> 00:38:27,200 Speaker 1: would both in ancient times and in the Middle Ages, 691 00:38:27,280 --> 00:38:30,680 Speaker 1: have been prescribed as the lowest sort of avarice and 692 00:38:30,760 --> 00:38:33,920 Speaker 1: as an attitude entirely lacking in self respect. 693 00:38:34,400 --> 00:38:37,800 Speaker 2: I feel like that's the way Europeans still look at Americans, Amarran, 694 00:38:38,040 --> 00:38:40,560 Speaker 2: have some self respect, bro, respect time. If you're going 695 00:38:40,600 --> 00:38:44,759 Speaker 2: to be so money grubbing, at least pretend otherwise. And 696 00:38:44,800 --> 00:38:48,160 Speaker 2: so Weaver is arguing that this is a whole new thing. 697 00:38:48,400 --> 00:38:51,439 Speaker 2: You know, he's flipped morals upside down, and he wants 698 00:38:51,480 --> 00:38:54,840 Speaker 2: to understand where it came from. Why is this suddenly 699 00:38:54,880 --> 00:38:57,520 Speaker 2: appearing in America at this time. In the work of 700 00:38:57,560 --> 00:39:02,160 Speaker 2: Ben Franklin, and he comes up with this very fuego take. 701 00:39:03,080 --> 00:39:09,200 Speaker 2: Matt's neighbor says, this belief system comes out of the Puritans, 702 00:39:09,520 --> 00:39:11,640 Speaker 2: you know, the Calvinists, this sect of Protestants who came 703 00:39:11,640 --> 00:39:15,360 Speaker 2: and said Massachusetts started Boston, the town where Ben Franklin 704 00:39:15,440 --> 00:39:19,040 Speaker 2: grew up. Right, his father was essentially a Puritan, and 705 00:39:19,760 --> 00:39:24,880 Speaker 2: the Puritans believed in predestination. Right. A key part of 706 00:39:24,880 --> 00:39:27,520 Speaker 2: their belief was that God, who knew all things, knew 707 00:39:27,560 --> 00:39:30,200 Speaker 2: before you were born whether you're going to go to 708 00:39:30,280 --> 00:39:33,520 Speaker 2: heaven or hell, nothing you could do about it. And 709 00:39:34,120 --> 00:39:38,120 Speaker 2: in Weber's telling, people responded to this very kind of weird, 710 00:39:38,200 --> 00:39:41,719 Speaker 2: stressful state of affairs by trying to prove to themselves 711 00:39:41,760 --> 00:39:44,680 Speaker 2: in the world that they were the elect that they 712 00:39:44,680 --> 00:39:46,319 Speaker 2: were on the you know, in the Happy Book, that 713 00:39:46,640 --> 00:39:49,120 Speaker 2: God had chosen them to go to heaven. And the 714 00:39:49,160 --> 00:39:53,040 Speaker 2: way you proved this was by being successful at your job, 715 00:39:53,440 --> 00:39:57,000 Speaker 2: by making a lot of money. Because if you made 716 00:39:57,000 --> 00:39:59,200 Speaker 2: a lot of money, if you were successful at your job, 717 00:39:59,960 --> 00:40:02,480 Speaker 2: then clearly you were one of the elects. Yes, like 718 00:40:02,520 --> 00:40:05,200 Speaker 2: Ben says at the end of the Advice to a Tranesman, 719 00:40:05,280 --> 00:40:08,399 Speaker 2: you know you'll get rich unless God decides otherwise, Well 720 00:40:08,440 --> 00:40:12,359 Speaker 2: I got rich. I guess God didn't decide otherwise. By 721 00:40:12,400 --> 00:40:16,799 Speaker 2: the way, the Puritans disapproved of, you know, taking too 722 00:40:16,920 --> 00:40:20,600 Speaker 2: much sensual pleasure in the world. Right, So classically, if 723 00:40:20,640 --> 00:40:23,320 Speaker 2: you'd made a lot of money, you would buy fancy 724 00:40:23,320 --> 00:40:27,080 Speaker 2: clothes and eat delicious foods and whatever, and like, you know, 725 00:40:27,160 --> 00:40:30,720 Speaker 2: maybe the Puritans might buy like a fancier black silk 726 00:40:30,840 --> 00:40:32,960 Speaker 2: shirt or something, but they're not gonna like be you know, 727 00:40:33,160 --> 00:40:35,760 Speaker 2: crowned in furs and jewels and whatever. 728 00:40:36,080 --> 00:40:40,759 Speaker 1: What an interesting conundrum though. You want the money to 729 00:40:40,880 --> 00:40:44,640 Speaker 1: prove that you are one of God's elect yeah, but 730 00:40:44,680 --> 00:40:47,680 Speaker 1: you don't want to spend the money on yourself because 731 00:40:48,600 --> 00:40:49,560 Speaker 1: that's just not done. 732 00:40:49,640 --> 00:40:50,560 Speaker 2: That's just not done. 733 00:40:50,680 --> 00:40:53,000 Speaker 1: And so you just you just make it so that 734 00:40:53,040 --> 00:40:56,000 Speaker 1: everyone knows you have money. And you know what happens 735 00:40:56,040 --> 00:41:00,080 Speaker 1: if people are behaving in that way, they accumulate capital, 736 00:41:00,880 --> 00:41:04,840 Speaker 1: which is a great way to get the capitalist flywheel 737 00:41:04,880 --> 00:41:08,719 Speaker 1: going boom boom, and Weber argues, and this is a 738 00:41:08,760 --> 00:41:15,000 Speaker 1: crucial turn that this Puritan worldview and pattern of behavior 739 00:41:15,520 --> 00:41:20,040 Speaker 1: persists even after the religious belief falls away. You're not 740 00:41:20,040 --> 00:41:22,319 Speaker 1: so worried about heaven and hell anymore, or whether you're 741 00:41:22,320 --> 00:41:25,760 Speaker 1: one of God's elect but you still have this itch 742 00:41:25,840 --> 00:41:28,040 Speaker 1: to show the world, to show yourself that you are 743 00:41:28,480 --> 00:41:29,640 Speaker 1: someone special, you know. 744 00:41:29,760 --> 00:41:33,000 Speaker 2: And look at Ben Franklin. Ben Franklin wasn't a Puritan, 745 00:41:33,080 --> 00:41:35,920 Speaker 2: he was a Deist, he wasn't so religious as his father, 746 00:41:36,800 --> 00:41:40,799 Speaker 2: but he still has this desire to make money and 747 00:41:40,840 --> 00:41:43,279 Speaker 2: to at least present himself as this frugal man and 748 00:41:43,320 --> 00:41:46,120 Speaker 2: in fact to tell the world you should go make 749 00:41:46,160 --> 00:41:47,680 Speaker 2: money and not spend. 750 00:41:47,760 --> 00:41:50,200 Speaker 1: And we see this to this day. People sort of 751 00:41:50,200 --> 00:41:54,080 Speaker 1: look down upon the rich son or daughter of some 752 00:41:54,480 --> 00:41:57,359 Speaker 1: rich family who just jets around the world and goes 753 00:41:57,400 --> 00:42:02,160 Speaker 1: to festivals and buys expensive clothes. But we look up 754 00:42:02,200 --> 00:42:06,000 Speaker 1: to those business people who started small, grew their own wealth, 755 00:42:06,200 --> 00:42:09,760 Speaker 1: and sleep under their desk and work, you know, twenty 756 00:42:09,800 --> 00:42:17,880 Speaker 1: hours a day to accomplish something that is considered virtuous wealth. Yeah, yeah, 757 00:42:17,440 --> 00:42:19,080 Speaker 1: so long after the Puritan. 758 00:42:19,239 --> 00:42:20,840 Speaker 2: And I don't know, I mean to be clear, you know, 759 00:42:20,880 --> 00:42:24,640 Speaker 2: Weber's argument was controversial as a sort of work of 760 00:42:24,680 --> 00:42:26,799 Speaker 2: my history when it came out. It still is is 761 00:42:26,800 --> 00:42:29,399 Speaker 2: it true? I don't know. I do find it resonant, right, 762 00:42:29,880 --> 00:42:33,080 Speaker 2: and I don't even know that I personally admire somebody 763 00:42:33,080 --> 00:42:34,960 Speaker 2: who works twenty hours a day and sleeps under their desk. 764 00:42:35,080 --> 00:42:37,920 Speaker 2: It depends on what they're working on. Frankly, but I 765 00:42:37,960 --> 00:42:42,480 Speaker 2: certainly get that feeling of the desire to like prove 766 00:42:42,640 --> 00:42:46,360 Speaker 2: through my work that I am whatever good or skilled 767 00:42:46,480 --> 00:42:52,560 Speaker 2: or something right. I've chosen watch it and certainly, as 768 00:42:52,600 --> 00:42:55,200 Speaker 2: you know, having done a story on Costco with me, 769 00:42:56,360 --> 00:42:57,840 Speaker 2: I love to not spend money. 770 00:42:58,080 --> 00:43:00,480 Speaker 1: You're proud of it. You've talked about it on many programs. 771 00:43:00,520 --> 00:43:03,400 Speaker 2: I've talked about it on many programs. I do feel 772 00:43:03,480 --> 00:43:08,800 Speaker 2: like Ben Franklin creates this worldview, this way of living 773 00:43:09,080 --> 00:43:13,200 Speaker 2: that is new, that does persistly. I mean today you 774 00:43:13,280 --> 00:43:17,200 Speaker 2: have people like whatever from Elon Musk to Warren Buffett's 775 00:43:17,200 --> 00:43:21,640 Speaker 2: partner Charlie Munger citing Ben Franklin right. He has clearly 776 00:43:21,719 --> 00:43:25,640 Speaker 2: created this language, this ethic, this way of being in 777 00:43:25,680 --> 00:43:28,880 Speaker 2: the world that is profoundly American, and that sort of 778 00:43:28,960 --> 00:43:32,600 Speaker 2: sets the course for business in America to this day. 779 00:43:33,600 --> 00:43:36,840 Speaker 2: Next week, in part two of our American Genius series, 780 00:43:37,560 --> 00:43:42,320 Speaker 2: the backlash. This capitalist machinery that Franklin helps to create 781 00:43:42,800 --> 00:43:46,560 Speaker 2: gets bigger and bigger, until finally, around nineteen hundred, there 782 00:43:46,640 --> 00:43:49,800 Speaker 2: is a backlash a turn in the way America thinks 783 00:43:50,040 --> 00:43:52,640 Speaker 2: about business, and one of the most important people in 784 00:43:52,760 --> 00:43:58,400 Speaker 2: driving that shift was a writer, Ida Tarbell. That's next Week. 785 00:43:58,960 --> 00:44:01,640 Speaker 2: Today's show was produced by Gabriel Hunter Chang. It was 786 00:44:01,719 --> 00:44:05,279 Speaker 2: engineered by Sarah Bruguier. Our video editor checks out on 787 00:44:05,320 --> 00:44:08,839 Speaker 2: YouTube subscribe like hey guys is Matt Nielsen, and our 788 00:44:08,960 --> 00:44:12,720 Speaker 2: editor and showrunner is Ryan Boom boom dilly. 789 00:44:13,040 --> 00:44:16,160 Speaker 1: Not an ounce of idleness among them. I'm Jacob Goldstein, 790 00:44:16,200 --> 00:44:17,720 Speaker 1: I'm Robert Smith. Thanks for listening.