Which one of our presidents said this, and do you agree with it?

I agree very much with it. I do not know which president said it but my guess is Lincoln. We have an overwhelming number of people nowadays expecting government to care for them cradle to grave.. Everybody has hardships but more often than not the guy keeping his mouth shut , asking for nothing but his wages due him and doing his best to work everyday is also the one most deserving of our respect and admiration..

This is a often quoted statement of President Thomas Jefferson. Contemporary political leaders attempt to apply logic of colonial economy and government. The challenge is that rural electrification and mass media bear witness to Industrial and Technical Economic growth.

The question is which of the conveniences each of us enjoys are "We The People" willing to fore go? Vast accrued wealth is the benefit and blessing of creative innovation. Could President Jefferson or Benjamin Franklin have imagined the opportunities of the modern divisions of labor.

Industrial and Technical growth eliminates many from the opportunities to produce survival subsistence or wealth. How are the ethical decisions made to determine who must preform the labor? During the colonial agricultural era most labor was provided indentured servants or "slavery".

Fortunately the US Constitution provides a structure for representative decisions for the general interests of the mainstream.

The basic premise is correct. Going forward the ethical challenges are interesting.

Child labor laws and retirement programs are part of the solution. What is next?

Many people are out of work, not from lack of willingness to work, but because the companies outsourced or were bought by foreign corporations.

And that quote is from Thomas Jefferson. I agree with it.

Right now, there is a large aristocracy in this country of people that do not work, yet collect on the work of others. And to side with it, are the people kept in poverty, working but not making enough to make ends meet, so they go into perpetually deeper debt.

There needs to be more regulation, either through unions or government intervention. Our economy is no longer an industrial one, we are a service...and you cannot support a family working a service job.

Sounds like something Regan would say?

If Jefferson said it, it doesn't have the same meaning today, he had slaves doing his work.