peashooter85:How Ben Franklin is helping to educate impoverished and disadvantaged youth over 200 ye
peashooter85:How Ben Franklin is helping to educate impoverished and disadvantaged youth over 200 years after his death.“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”—Benjamin FranklinBen Franklin’s contributions to everyday American society are manifold and cannot be overestimated. An 18th century renaissance man, his contributions include areas such as government, science, healthcare, engineering, music, entertainment, warfare, transportation, sexuality (I kid you not), philosophy, geography, astronomy, and how to fart with pride (also not kidding). However, as Franklin was nearing the end of his life, he wanted to do something that would continue to help his countrymen long after he was gone.Being a former tradesmen of the middle class, Franklin believed that a strong country must have a strong middle class composed of skilled craftsmen, tradesmen, and artisans. Thus, before his death in 1790, he bequeathed 2,000 pounds to the cities of Philadelphia and Boston. The cities could do whatever they wanted with the money, but with the stipulation that they could not use it until after 200 years had passed. In the meantime, the cities would have to invest the money in a special trust. What did Franklin dictate they invest in? The lower class American people, people who didn’t normally have a chance to move up in society. As part of his will, Franklin ordered that Philadelphia and Boston was to use the money to provide low interest loans to poor young men aged 26 years and younger in order to learn a trade or start a business. The interest rates to be charged were to be only high enough to allow the fund to grow or at least keep up with inflation. After all, 2,000 pounds may have been a fortune in 1790, after 200 years of inflation it would not be worth very much. This was incredibly important for the average American as throughout most of history the vast majority of people could not get a loan from a bank or lender, something very common today. When a loan was acquired, it was typically with extremely high interest rates.In addition, Franklin ordered that periodically a committee be convened in order to amend the trust to better conform to American culture and industry. Franklin understood that after 200 years America could be a much different country, thus he made provisions for his trust to evolve with American society. Over time, the trust was changed to include women and minorities as recipients, people who would have had little to no opportunities in 18th century society.The survival of the trust was challenged at many points by lawyers, greedy politicians, embezzlers, and even Franklin descendants who believed the money was rightfully theirs, but it continued to thrive. After 200 years, the trust had grown to $6.5 million, and it was time for both city’s politicians to decide what to do with the money. The ghost of Franklin must have been looking over their shoulders, because they thankfully decided not to blow it, but to continue Franklin’s dream. The Philadelphia portion of the trust was divided into several local scholarship funds to help poor and underprivileged students learn a trade or get an education. To this day these scholarship funds continue to grow and thrive. In Boston the fund was used to support the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology, which was originally founded in 1908. -- source link