07 Dec Individual Rights
The Declaration of Independence does not address Poverty directly. However it does talk about individual rights, including the rights to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Before the Declaration, political philosophers like John Locke discussed the Natural Law rights of Life, Liberty, and Property. Our Declaration intentionally changed the word property to pursuit of happiness. It is possible to have happiness without property and it is possible to have property but not have happiness. The Founders thought pursuing happiness was more important to society than pursuing property alone.
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