[petuniasevan]

"Largesse" from the Public Treasury

A Scottish historian in 1790 made this observation after studying various forms of government:

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until a majority of the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship."

This is our destiny if we don't do something to change our attitudes toward government programs that "give" us money. I'm not talking about tax refunds. That's your own money the government is returning to you after taking too much to begin with. I'm talking about programs that take money from someone else in order to spend it on you.

Remember, the government can't spend money on you unless it has first taken it from someone else.


Why can't people UNDERSTAND this?

[RightWhale]

Why can't people UNDERSTAND this?

Most do. Even most elected officials do. There is a kind of gradualism at work, and then there is Hillary who would happily transfer a seventh of the national economy into the federal budget right now based on some blighted moral reasoning. Gradual creep versus volcanic upheaval.