Some Food for Thought

Greetings from the Left Coast, where we here at Left Coast Blues do the heavy thinking for those who just can’t be bothered.

Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee, of Great Britain, was approximately 30 years old when the Declaration of Independence was signed, and turned 42 the year the U.S. Constitution was ratified. He watched the birth of the new nation from his side of the Atlantic. While unverified, the following quote has long been attributed to him:

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates 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. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.”

We’ve managed to beat the 200 year prediction so far, but some things are starting to worry me. As we’ve observed in earlier posts, 41% of all Americans paid no federal Income Tax in 2006. That’s pushing dangerously close to a majority. And we continue to hear that we can have it all, and only the “rich” will have to pay for it – 95% of all Americans, we are told, will get tax cuts.

We have a president who is determined to play the class warfare card at every opportunity. On page five of Mr. Obama’s federal budget, you will read, “While middle-class families have been playing by the rules, living up to their responsibilities as neighbors and citizens, those at the commanding heights of our economy have not.” Did you catch that? If you make a lot of money, President Obama apparently believes that you must have done something shady or underhanded to do it – you haven’t been “playing by the rules,” and he goes on to say that it is his duty to change that. I find that disturbing.

Demonize the rich. Make them pay for all those nifty government programs. After all, they don't deserve to have all that money! It isn't fair that they should have so much! They probably cheated to get it anyway! Keep that largesse coming.

May I recommend instead the words of another president: “Property is the fruit of labor…property is desirable…is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him labor diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built.” That was Abraham Lincoln, whom Barack Obama claims to admire.

And while we’re quoting great statesmen, consider Thomas Jefferson’s words: “A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.”

Thanks for listening.