A person in debt ought not spend a huge amount of (borrowed) money to travel to, say, the Australian outback in the off chance he might find something interesting there. That person should get his own finances in order first.
Same goes for countries.
The 24th amendment has insured that that will never happen again. Once you allow non-Taxpayers to vote, you will never balance your finances again.
It has created a positive feedback loop.
It's sad, but you are correct about that. A quote attributed to Alexander Tytler:
A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.