Posted on 06/14/2011 8:09:55 AM PDT by george76
A very good summation of voter attitudes towards entitlements and spending from UBS floor guy Art Cashin:
That “Made Up” Quote Looks Truer And Truer Each Day – The continuing loud cautions of “Don’t Tread On MyEntitlements”, and the imminence of a majority of voters not paying any taxes, recalls yet again the rather prophetic but apparently fictitious quote of Alexander Tytler...
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over a loss of fiscal responsibility, always followed by a dictatorship. The average of the world's great civilizations before they decline has been 200 years. These nations have progressed in this sequence: From bondageto spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back again to bondage."
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
A truly lovely quote.
I would love to have someone give me an example of a society where this progression actually took place.
I certainly can’t think of one.
Great post, george76. Thanks. DEFUND (socialist) collectives foreign and domestic. The U.S.A. becomes financially solvent and we become very low-taxed prosperous/productive citizens in a country which acts as a beacon for individual liberty.
Spiritual bondage? Really......
Neal Boortz used to use that quote all the time. I let him know it was bogus and he basically called me an idiot who doesn’t know how to fact check. Apparently he figured out he wasn’t as smart as he thought he was because the quote is now removed from his website.
That may be because the quote belongs to de Tocqueville not Tytler
The self-indulgent greed of the Welfare State HAS destroyed us. ............The tipping point is all but here.............
ping
I may be too much of an optimist, but I still believe Baraq loses ANY 2-way matchup in 2012. Especially with the economy clearly headed on a down leg going into the 2nd half of this year.
But I also believe that in a 3-way race, the Baraqqi Coalition can pull off a Clintonian plurality.
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