Peter vs. Paul: Is America About to Split?

North Star Writers Group ^ | October 27, 2008 | David Karki

[Invisigoth]

“Give me liberty or give me death!” – Patrick Henry, March 23, 1775

“We want pie! We want pie!” – Crowd chanting at an Obama campaign rally, October 21, 2008

Things have truly come full circle – from a Virginia patriot's eloquent plea to his countrymen to fight for their right of self-determination, to a Miami crowd demanding a Marxist con-artist shakedown their fellow citizens. We have turned from a nation of rugged individualists to one where half the population demands to live as parasites.

We once were proud to provide for ourselves because we knew that, in order to be free, we had to accept that responsibility. Now, a slim majority is proud to shirk their responsibilities and expects others to provide for them, so much so that they think government exists to effectively stick a gun in someone else's back and steal their money.

The old saying goes: “When you rob Peter to pay Paul, you can count on two things: Peter's anger and Paul's undying support.” I think it forgot a third thing, which is the inevitable logical conclusion of the process – Peter and Paul beating each other senseless. As Paul demands more and more of Peter, eventually Peter reaches the “enough is enough” breaking point and refuses to participate further. At the same time, Paul has been receiving Peter's money for so long that he has come to believe that it's his entitlement, and so feels “robbed” when Peter stops paying. The next thing you know, fists are flying, if not bullets.

[GOPJ]

Jeez, this is just like zimbabwe. I got an idear, let’s kill all the farmers, rape all their daughters, and give the land to people who don’t know how to farm.

Well, awful as it sounds, it does spread the wealth from those who earned it to those who didn't. Too bad it never works for long. Once the unearned wealth has been spent - and there's no one left to steal from - the country goes broke.

Well, until the UN (defenders of dictators world-wide) gets into the picture - and then we'll "help" the starving poor...

I personally wish that one time it didn't work this way. One time, the original people from that land could "take back their land" and work hard and build prosperity. But it never happens. Perverse incentives and all... My mother used to say, "good revolutionaries seldom make good rulers" and I believe she was right.

[ichabod1]

The farming is just a great example. It isn’t as easy as it might look.

[BuffaloJack]

> Jeez, this is just like zimbabwe. I got an idear, let’s kill all the farmers, rape all their daughters, and give the land to people who don’t know how to farm.
That’s just about what happened when the commies took over in Vietnam in 1975. My father-in-law was a farmer, he had a couple acres of rice paddies. The government divided his farm into 10 pieces. He grew enough crops on his parcel to feed his family and have a surplus to sell. The government took his surplus away from him to feed the people farming the other 9 plots. After a few years it sunk in that he only needed to grow enough for his immediate family’s needs. The people on the other 9 plots, as a result, went hungry.
Communism and socialism does not work. The first thing it does it destroy any incentive to work.

[GOPJ]

My father-in-law was a farmer, he had a couple acres of rice paddies. The government divided his farm into 10 pieces. He grew enough crops on his parcel to feed his family and have a surplus to sell. The government took his surplus away...

After a few years it sunk in that he only needed to grow enough for his immediate family’s needs. The people on the other 9 plots, as a result, went hungry. Communism and socialism does not work. The first thing it does it destroy any incentive to work.

You're right. There was a time when I could look at the people who believed in "redistribution" and feel that at least they had their hearts in the right place. But I don't feel that way anymore. There's been too many examples in the world to show it doesn't work. That it casues misery and poverty.

Now we call "moral hazard" but it's the same con it always was - a free lunch - an unearned piece of the pie - envy - grievance. Your father in law learned the hard way... I hope the people of this country don't have to...

[polymuser]

We'll not split, be we will finally get our cancer looked at.

[Ronin]

Call it succession, call it partition, call it balkinization... I have seen this coming since the Clinton years.

The fear and loathing is too deep on both sides. The leftist parasites and the media want a free love socialist utopia where everyone gets ‘their fair share’ whether they are willing to work for it or not.

The people who work for a living and want to better themselves and their families on the right, don’t. Only, they’re the ones who grow the food, build the cars, run the factories, do all the little things that create the wealth that the leftists want to steal.

And it’s weird how it’s almost become so totally balanced population-wise, even though leftist support is only strong in the cities while conservative support is strongest everywhere else.