Paine deemed wealth inequality natural but king-subject hierarchy unnatural and unchristian.

Evidence

Taking as having established “that the government of England is nearly as monarchical as that of France or Spain,” where absolutism reigned, Paine focuses his fire on monarchy in general and its British variant in particular. “Mankind being originally equals in the order of creation, the equality could only be destroyed by some subsequent circumstance,” he reasons. Accepting “the distinctions of rich and poor” as a natural consequence of liberty and of “good and bad [as] the distinctions of Heaven,” Paine writes, “there is another and greater distinction for which no truly natural or religious reason can be assigned, and that is, the distinction of Men into KINGS and SUBJECTS.” Nature deplores monarchy as contrary to mankind’s equal creation, he contends, and the Bible condemns it as a form of idolatry. — Edward J. Larson, Declaring Independence, 53

Categorization

• XREF: Paine’s acceptance of rich/poor as natural while condemning political hierarchy shows an early American separation of economic from political inequality worth probing in course discussions of equality. — connects to: Modern inequality’s pain comes from knowing dignity that feudalism-era people lacked — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 137

Broader Connections

• Modern inequality’s pain comes from knowing dignity that feudalism-era people lacked #qualifies (0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 137