What was wrong with Ben Franklin? As a successful printer, he retired at forty two a wealthy man.?

He said he was please that he could now devote all his time to science and inventing for the betterment of all. Franklin never patented any of his inventions, he wanted everyone to benefit from them. Why do you suppose some people are like Franklin and others like Bernie Madoff?

Public Comments

1. His slaves probably had another opinion.
2. Genetics...
3. Some people are men of the people, like Ron Paul, and others are corrupt and favor corporations and wall st, like Obowma
4. Cause helping the lessers of society is now compared to feeding a recovering alcoholic beer.
5. Ben Franklin was brilliant and a good man. One historical example I can think of is the difference between Nicola Tesla and Thomas Edison. The former wanted to provide free electricity to everyone in the world and the latter electrocuted animals to death to try and discredit the former. Some men can be brilliant but entirely unpractical, while others can be brilliant and good at business, to put it kindly. Scientists today aren't brilliant mavericks, they are just pawns of Governments and Corporations.
6. The real question is not what was wrong with Ben Franklin, but instead what is wrong with the bulk of US Society that there are not more men like Franklin?
7. In likely a good part because he had a sense of proportion. It's perhaps why he lived so long and is admired, while whats-his-face will be forgotten.