I'll Take Tytler For The Win Alex

Actually it's been attributed to Alexander Tytler but is more probably an anonymous quotation from the early 20th century, but it's still apt despite its source, especially for this bit of tomfoolery that I'll get to in a bit.

"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."

Course I could have just pulled the Tocqueville card & laid down the following:

"Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude."

"The American Republic will endure, until politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money."

All of those would be sufficient explanation for - well let me give you a quote about the specific situation I'm referring to:

"Their plan goes beyond cluelessness. Democrats are either entirely indifferent to the idea that extreme hard times demand extreme belt tightening, or they are bone stupid. We lean toward the latter."

That's from an unsigned article on Detnews.com. The article itself is worth reading but I'm not sure if it'll inspire anger, humor or just incredulity. If I hadn't spent so much time around musicians (& believe me nothing surprises you after seeing how they make their monetary decisions for a while) I'd have had an imprint of a keyboard on my chin while reading the article.

"An iPod for every kid? Are they !#$!ing idiots?"

The gist is that even though Michigan is facing a $1,000,000,000 budget deficit the NASA candidates in the state house offered a proposed budget that includes buying an MP3 player for every school kid in the whole damn state. Oh, & a possible (read likely) increase in taxes was briefly mentioned.

I'm no fan of taxpayer funded education or healthcare or a bunch of other quasi-socialist programs that otherwise anti-marxian folks don't seem to mind. But come-freakin-on; would you really want extra dollars being yanked out of your paycheck so little Timmy next door can have 2 gigs of Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears & Avril Lavigne at his disposal 24/7 while the state's budget (that's already blown $1 billion past its resources) continues to not be solvent?

To be fair Republicans are capable of ideas just as dumb. They usually (key word: usually) don't hit you in your wallet though.

An Ipod for every kid? I... I mean... not even the folks in Boulder would... would they? I mean... just damn.

Maybe I should lay down the Churchill gambit:

“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”

"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of misery."

The unsigned article posits that either indifference or being "bone stupid" is the reason behind this budget proposal. They lean towards the latter & I really wouldn't bet against them. I think it's safe to say the supporters of that proposition aren't going to be on final jeopardy anytime soon. I'm certain that if they had read Tytler, Tocqueville or Churchill's thoughts on this type of thing they'd simply have not grasped it but I'm not so certain they have heard those gentleman's views on the evils of frivolous spending of taxpayers monies.

An IPod? Just damn.

I found out about this bread & circus routine over at ZombieBoy's digs. Go read his thoughts which are brief but spot on.

& remember; the next time you get a salary cut or are for some other reason behind on the mortgage just buy all your children &/or pets something electronic yet pricey & your financial woes will disappear. If it works in Michigan it should work for you. Right?

Posted by Publicola at April 10, 2007 07:07 AM | TrackBack