See the following portion of Edmund Burke's 1775 "Speech on Conciliation with the Colonies. . . ." before the British Parliament--a speech which dwelt, at length, on the economic superiority of the American colonies, and in which he attributed that economic achievement to what he called "the spirit of liberty": "In other countries, the people, more simple, and of a less mercurial cast, judge of an ill principle in government only by an actual grievance; here they anticipate the evil, and judge of the pressure of the grievance by the badness of the principle. They augur misgovernment at a distance, and snuff the approach of tyranny in every tainted breeze." - Edmund Burke, 1775
That's it. Folks who earn a living (as opposed to being addicted to the Government Tit) are usually of a more independent mind.