I generally despise receiving forwarded emails. More often than not they include six pages of email addresses the message was previously sent to and then a very short message about how I need to forward this on to my friends or suffer pain and torture for the rest of eternity. I really wonder how people have the time for this rubbish. But amazingly enough I actually got a fairly good one in the mail today and felt the need to pass it on to you (with commentary of course).
These are possibly the 5 best sentences you’ll ever read:
1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
This common fallacy can be readily seen in the “Occupy Wall Street” crowds around the country. The vast majority of them are angry (for good reason) against the “evil capitalists” but fall for the lie of governmental protection. The majority of the protesters seem to be socialists demanding more government involvement. Unfortunately for them, if they succeed they will just get more of the same and simply accelerate the rise of poverty.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
Subsidies reduce the amount of wealth available for the purchase of other goods. I always wonder where people think the government gets the money it hands out to various individuals and businesses. Do they think it comes out of thin air?
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
Taxation is theft. Anyone who desires government roads, education, health care, retirement, jobs, et cetera, is taking money out of another person’s pocket. Theft is still wrong even when the government initiates it.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.
The dreaded “people” again! While this item is a general reiteration of the previous entries, this time around the author decided to bring in “the people”. This arbitrary construct does nothing but polarize and homogenize the occupants of a geopolitical entity. When discussing issues in terms of an entire group of individuals it makes turning popular opinion against “outsiders” much easier. Take any major instance of genocide or murder and you will find a focus on an “us” versus “them” mentality. The people indeed.
Great! Love the format of this blog! Citing a source and giving your commentary on it really showcases your beliefs.