THE PRINTING PRESS, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, AND THE GOLDEN ARCHES
Vol. I | Issue. 7 | June 28, 2021
In 1999, when Time Magazine was still thicker than a napkin, it named Johann Guttenberg ``Person of the Millenium''.
Born around 1400, he invented the moveable type printing press circa 1450. This invention was the most revolutionary leap in technology since the invention of the wheel.
Guttenberg, a Goldsmith by trade, had a fascination with the possibility of mass production, which at that time didn’t exist and was beyond the imagination of most people. Prior to Guttenberg’s invention, books were hand-copied in "codex” form. A Bible or other hand-copied book of similar length took roughly two years to produce. Bible and book ownership were the exclusive provinces of the wealthy.
Prior to his invention, the most efficient printing technology could crank out 40 pages per day. Guttenberg's moveable type presses could crank out 3,600. This single technology created the first vehicle in history for the mass dissemination of information and other printable things such as money.
If Guttenberg had known at the time that his invention could have been used as a money-printing machine, he probably would have used it to pay back the investors who sued him for losses in some of his earlier get-rich-quick schemes. In those days, paper money didn’t exist and likely wasn't on the drawing board. Back then, you needed gold, salt, fish, or something of value to settle your debts.
Even when extravagant mobster, Bugsy Siegal, inventor of Las Vegas, was accused by fellow mobsters of having no respect for money, he purportedly quipped "What's money, anyway? Just dirty paper. I'll get more."
Had Guttenberg lived 600 years later with his own printing press, he could have been really rich. Just like the United States Government, he could have printed trillions just by hitting a switch.
Unfortunately for Jo, he was never able to monetize his great invention after so radically changing the world forever.
Founding Father Benjamin Franklin, born in 1706, was able to monetize the printing press in a way that made him revolutionary in a different way than we are accustomed to hearing.
In addition to all of his brilliant accomplishments as a Scientist, Kite Flier with a Key, Diplomat, First Postmaster General, signer of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, Franklin laid the groundwork to help make former milkshake salesman Ray Kroc into the billionaire Emperor of McDonald’s.
Without Ben, there would have been no Ray and no McDonald’s. That is because Ben Franklin invented the business franchise. Franklin, the prolific Pre-Revolutionary Printer, who modestly self-identified as "B. Franklin Printer", became wealthy mostly through the earnings of Poor Richard's Almanac.
In addition to its vast commercial success, with a circulation of roughly 10,000 print runs per year, Poor Richard's contained foundational epigrams of American wisdom that we are all familiar with but sadly less practiced with today, such as:
“A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned”
“Time is Money”
“Waste Not, Want Not”
Because Ben had bigger fish to fry than just running a business, he decided to create a business system, where he could continue to profit by selling his system to others while still maintaining control. His franchise model allowed him to do so without the daily operational headaches.
In 1733, Franklin drew up a six-year contract that allowed Thomas Whitmarsh to establish himself as a printer in South Carolina. He did so by purchasing the printing press and types for one-third of the profits.
Hence a new Star was born: The Great American Franchise. Say thank you, Ray Kroc!
Franklin in so many ways could be reasonably considered the most foundational of the Founding Fathers. He was the only signatory to all four of the foundational documents of the United States: The Declaration of Independence, The Treaty of Alliance with France, and The Constitution.
But more than anything, he was the American Political Philosopher whose voice, through Poor Richard and other writings, should be considered the foundational voice of American solidity and common sense that gave direction to The American Way.
Although a brilliantly successful printer, he wouldn't have approved of the Printing Press as a means to create trillions in "dirty paper" as Bugsy called it to fund government programs that shouldn't be funded.
With today's national debt approaching 30 trillion dollars, we have become used to tossing around our paper trillions as if they were quarters. We squander money on programs that bear no relationship to a reasonable social safety net. We fund groups internationally such as the PLO who hate and harm us every day. We will be funding the rebuilding of Gaza, which is the sick domain of homicidal Israel hating Hamas.
And perhaps the most dangerous and poisonous program out of all, our no-stop printing press is funding poisonous programs in our public schools, colleges, and universities through critical race theory, and the 1619 project, whose sole objective is to destroy America.
What can we do about it? Poor Richard told us three centuries years ago that "A Penny saved is a Penny Earned". It is therefore each of our responsibility to watch those pennies and how they are being spent. Start with your community, your local schools, then move on to the trillions. Make your voice heard through your vote.
In Guttenberg’s day, they were printing bibles, not money. Now as we all know, the left is looking to remove bibles and print endless reams of dirty paper.
B. Franklin wouldn’t approve.
-Emes