Sunday, January 20, 2013

The Road Ahead?



The following was submitted by a reader and old friend (Charlie Radigan) and is recommended for your perusal and reflection:
  
Trying to make sense of the 2012 election results, I soon realized it all makes sense when discovering quotes from important people from our past.  The position we are now in has been predicted. For example, Alexis de Tocqueville in the 1800s said, "The American Republic will endure until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money." Thomas Jefferson said, "I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." Phil Steffen said: " Never underestimate the power of very stupid people in large groups." Samuel Adams said, "When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the Republic." 
There are many more quotes that accurately predict the economic and political mess we are now in and what lies ahead for America. My favorite has been attributed to Alexander Tytler  professor of history at the University of Edinburgh in the late 1700s.  He reportedly wrote: "A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.  A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."  
Is that what lies ahead for America? Often the outcomes of complicated problems become easily predictable when the problems are reduced to simple forms.  It is frightening to me what lies ahead for my children and grandchildren because of "the power of very stupid people in large groups" who gave us the sideshow we now have in Washington. A housecleaning in 2016 is our only and last hope, if it is not already too late.

Ned Crockett
Irvington, VA
(Reprinted from the The Rappahannock Record)

6 comments:

George W. Potts said...

Perhaps we might now entertain one of Lani Guinier's notions as expressed in her book "The Tyranny of the Majority" -- where members of minorities, such as (soon-to-be-the-minority) taxpayers, would get multiple votes calculated depending on how much taxes they pay? Non-taxpayers would get just one vote. Perhaps Lani Guinier (remember her, Clinton nominated her for the Supreme Court) might disagree with this definition of a minority?

Anonymous said...

That was my idea too. With an additional attraction of a lottery, scaled so that there is a pool for every thousand you pay, then every ten thousand. Sorry, a very modest lottery if you paid less than a thousand... But more than zero.

DEN said...

Interesting that the central focus of all this nattering is on the poor stupid people who are accused of gorging themselves at the public trough. I think the Republic is more challenged by rich greedy smart guys who have no loyalties, empathy or respect for the law.

George W. Potts said...

You are right to some extent ... how come Jon Corzine isn't behind bars? How come no one has been prosecuted for the sub-prime meltdown? Let me see ... perhaps Obama is practicing misdirection in his attack on the rich?

However, can't both extreme strata of our society be on the government teat?

DEN said...

1. I just wonder how guys like Mr Crockett can claim to love the country when they display nothing but contempt for the people.
2. The idea for voting rights based on taxes paid would surely lead to tyranny by the rich.

George W. Potts said...

Don't look now DEN ... but you're part of the 2%.