[JasonC]

Fine, I simply meant the founding generation was not exactly rolling in capital. We had not yet built most of the cities, none of the canals or roads, none of the industy or technology we have now, etc. We got rich off legal immigration of the skilled. The population grew 100 fold without impoverishing anybody, in fact that increase helped cause our growing wealth.

[hedgetrimmer]

Fine, I simply meant the founding generation was not exactly rolling in capital.

Because they had established a free enterprise system, not a capitalist system.

We got rich off legal immigration of the skilled

No, we got rich off of tariffs, and the concept of standing up for our fellow Americans, for their rights and their property. People were free to earn money however they liked, with legal boundaries, and they used their private resources, farms, timber, mines, boats, and minds to do so.

The population grew 100 fold without impoverishing anybody

Because married couples had children. The people who came here could not demand health care, schools, housing and social services,because none existed. Now the corrupt employers who hire the illegal immigrants get subsidized by the tax paying Americans. In the old brash days, they'd have been tarred and feathered. And they would certainly have faced legal repercussions for the "taking" of the American taxpayers money.