[Chad Fairbanks]

I like the idea of only property-owners being able to vote... I recall a quote from someone (I forget who) that stated something along the lines that when people discover they can vote themselves benefits, the Republic is doomed...

[fone]

Sir Alex Fraser Tytler (1742-1813) was a Scottish jurist and historian, widely known in his time. He was professor of Universal History at Edinburgh University in the late18th century.

Here is a very important quotation for your serious contemplation, taken from the 1801 collection of his lectures.

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been 200 years.

These nations have progressed through this sequence:
"From bondage to 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."

emphasis added