It should have been “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Property.”
Discussion
The pursuit of happiness part was the US ‘interpretation’ of the Scottish enlightenment writers was it not?
From John Locke’s “life, liberty, and estate” I believe.
And slavery probably muddied the waters as it did everything else at the time. The focus on property when property included human beings was probably more than some could abide, understandably.
Read a fantastic piece a few months ago that I don’t have time to find now but it contrasted the different movements in Europe. How the Scots went ‘Libertarian’ because of fights with the English who went Fabian, Austrian school from Menger through Mises and Hayek and how that corner of the world was very different culturally and politically buttressing the French and Germans who went Auth with their philosophies because of different political/economic structures.
Will try to dig it up later 🤙
I read Thomas Jefferson thought "the pursuit of happiness" had a better cadence when read.
Yeah, probably.
I just think the pursuit of happiness leads too many people astray. It’s never been the right goal in my experience.
Pursuit of potential, or pursuit of excellence maybe. Anything but happiness. Chasing happiness is too often a dead end.