Sunday, January 18, 2015

Benjamin Franklin to the Modern Progressives

"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 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 about 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 apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.".............................................................................................Yeah, I would say that we're pretty far along that sequence.

4 comments:

Les Carpenter said...

History has a habit of repeating itself.

It is okay to vote yourself largesse from the public treasury as long as you are able to fund the treasury to the level necessary to cover said largesse.


BTW, that of course means everyone would need to be a contributor to the public treasury and accept the responsibility for doing so.

Yeah, like that is gonna happen anytime soon.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

And the bureaucrats always take a cut.

dmarks said...

Will: They take a cut because the primary focus is the wealth and power of the bureacratic/ruling class.

That's why you have the tragedy of Federal "workers" making millions running welfare-related agencies.

BB-Idaho said...

There is considerable doubt about Franklin's "quote".