“A penny saved is a penny earned,” Benjamin Franklin famously said. Pennies earn considerably less today than back then but the concept of making money with money remains sound—as do Franklin’s thoughts on frugality. During a long and varied career that including printing and publishing, an ambassadorship in Paris and copy editing the Declaration of Independence, Franklin penned a booklet called The Way to Wealth.
Tim E. Ogline uses Franklin’s text (and his precise words) as basis for a graphic novel in which our nation’s sagacious cofounder introduces himself—with hindsight’s benefit—as the father of self-help books. Stepping into the 21st century, he finds a contemporary society of wannabe big shots addicted to swag and sinking in debt. To the ideologues of tax cutting, Franklin says that we are taxed most heavily by our idleness, pride and folly—“and from these the government can give us no relief.” He adds, “A word to the wise is enough and a dissertation to the dense is a waste of breath.”
Beyond pinching pennies and counting dollars, Franklin had a deeper set of recommendations. “Do you love life? Then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff life is made of.”
Get The Way to Wealth at Amazon here.
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