Long, long ago and far, far away – well, maybe not so far away, as it was still in Connecticut – my dad shared a piece of an article with me. Here is why he shared it:
“The following quotation from Alexander Fraser Tytler, [later tagged as incorrectly credited to him, but what does that matter?] economist and professor at Edinburgh University, writing at the time of the American Revolution, is instructive:
‘A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse (generous benefits) from the public treasury.
‘From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising them 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 great civilizations has been 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 complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependence back into bandage.'”
How about we change the equation?