20 years ago, I would have read this and assumed it could never happen in America.
“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. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.”
? Alexis de Tocqueville
My God, how far we’ve fallen in so short at time. Or maybe it’s been festering for some years and we’re only now seeing the fruits?
Too many people on both sides looking to government for the answers, whether it’s tax credits or subsidies, higher spending on this or cutting spending on that. Bastiat was right.