Posted on 08/05/2012 6:51:34 AM PDT by Kaslin
The all-time, most-viewed post on this blog is this set of cartoons showing how the welfare state begins and how it eventually becomes an unsustainable mess.
The great Chuck Asay has a cartoon that takes the next step, showing what happens when the looters and moochers who ride in the wagon get pitted against those who are pulling the wagon.
Since I’m not a Romney fan (for a bunch of reasons outlined here), I would have preferred if the cartoon didn’t imply anything about the current election and instead focused on the rhetorical question of what happens to a society when those living off the government outnumber those who get stuck picking up the tab.
It also would have been more accurate to have the two slave drivers somehow identified as “politicians” and the “IRS.”
But it’s a very clever cartoon, so it’s worth sharing even if I’m nitpicking.
You can see my favorite Asay cartoons here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Normally this blog focuses on big issues such as the economic damage of government spending and the self-defeating foolishness of high tax rates.
Today, though, it’s time for another edition of “You Be the Judge.”
In this game, we look at stories and issues that require us to balance common sense, the principles of a free society, and justice.
Previous editions of this game include: Putting politicians on trial, vigilante justice, brutal tax collection tactics, child molestation, pay levels at government-owned firms, sharia law, healthcare, incest, speed traps, jury nullification, and vigilante justice (again).
Our latest example comes from Alaska, where someone with very questionable judgement was busted for floating down a river while consuming vast quantities of alcohol. Here’s some of the story from the Fairbanks Daily News.
A Juneau man faces a rare DUI charge for allegedly having a 0.313 breath-alcohol content as he floated through Fairbanks on an inflatable raft Sunday night. Alaska’s driving under the influence law applies to people operating motor vehicles, water craft and airplanes. …when Alaska State Troopers received a report of a “heavily intoxicated” man floating down the Chena River near the Parks Highway bridge at 6:40 p.m. Sunday, a wildlife trooper boat responded and arrested 32-year-old William Modene. …At 0.313, Modene’s breath-alcohol content was almost four times the legal limit for operating a vehicle, 0.08. …Under Alaska’s DUI law, operating a water craft means to “navigate a vessel used or capable of being used as a means of transportation on water for recreational or commercial purposes on all waters, fresh or salt, inland or coastal, inside the territorial limits or under the jurisdiction of the state.”
So here’s the issue we have to decide: Mr. Modene doesn’t sound like a model citizen, and he may be swimming in the shallow end of the gene pool, but the question on the table is whether the government should have arrested him for DUI?
From a legal perspective, is it accurate to say that he was “operating” a water craft or “navigating” a vessel?
I’m not an expert on such matters, but it seems to me that he was doing nothing more than floating down a river. There’s nothing in the story, for instance, to indicate he had a motor on his raft.
From what we know, Mr. Modene posed zero danger to other people. He was merely a drunk, minding his own business as he floated along.
My gut instinct is that this case should be tossed. The government would be in a much stronger position if it had charged him with “being drunk in public” or something like that. But even in that case, floating down a river may not meet the test of being “in public.”
There’s a separate issue, of course, about whether the government can and should intervene if someone is engaging in self-destructive behavior. If there’s a report that someone has just taken a bottle of sleeping pills, most of us presumably would agree that it would be okay for the government to break down his door and tote him to a hospital to have his stomach pumped.
But the self-destructive behavior has to pose an immediate danger. We’d hopefully all reject, for instance, the notion of some Bloomberg-esque ban on unhealthy food because people sometimes shorten their lives by overeating.
Since I probably average one beer a month, I’m not competent to make sweeping statements about alcohol, but it’s my understanding that a blood alcohol level of .4 is when people begin to die. Since Mr. Modene was already above .3, perhaps there’s some argument for police intervention.
But set that aside. Pretend you’re on the jury and you have to vote on whether Modene is guilty of DUI. What’s your verdict? And if you also want to weigh in on whether the government had a right to interfere with his raft trip, don’t be bashful.
For me, that second question is more challenging. That’s why I like sticking with simple questions of right vs. wrong, such as whether I side with Switzerland or France on the issue of whether fiscal sovereignty and financial privacy should be undermined to help high-tax nations impose their bad tax laws on an extraterritorial basis.
Chicago! Chicago ! It's a ramblin town!!!
Can you say GREECE?
For once I can simply say “see my tagline”.
Chicago? Greece? OK,maybe.But *I* give you
It’s all about public serve us.
Lol how could I possibly have forgotten about Detroit? All those who profess their loyalty to Obama and his communist theories need to look no further than Detrot to see what American will be if we continue down the road of liberalism.
Thanks, I had forgotten.
VOILA! - King Obama Of Scam-A-Lot Gets Elected
“What Happens When Looters and Moochers Outnumber Workers and Producers?”
see, “Atlas Shrugged”
We pass the point of no return for this once great,
productive country. That’s what happens.
Atlas Shrugged happens.
Most of us aren’t captains of industry so we aren’t `going Galt.’
But after the `Affordable Care Act’ I am among many in their prime earning years with the option of gradually slipping out of the harness.
The wagon will slowly come to a halt and young people still in harness, trying to buy homes and raise a family, are going to look around and ask, “Where in the **** is everybody?” Any surviving weekly news magazines will be addressing this phenomenon with consternation.
It’s happening now. What did they expect? As Thatcher put it, eventually you run out of other people’s money.
I agree. I can't afford to not work for my remaining productive years, but I have cut way, way back. Luckily, my time in the telecom industry allowed me to establish a respectable retirement account, and I'm just treading water until retirement time comes around.
In the meantime, the amount that I actually give to the federal government has decreased by about 90%.
Starve the beast.
Anyone who has a problem with that: http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/income/2010-08-10-1Afedpay10_ST_N.htm
The only `growth industry’ over the past several years has been government.
And b-b-b-b-baby, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet ....
What happens when an inexperienced farmer loses 0.1% of his crops to rodents? Perhaps nothing, since he can sustain that loss and not mind. What happens a few years later when that older and wiser farmer loses a quarter or half of his crops to the descendents of those rodents? At that point, the farmer realizes that, no, he can’t feed both his family and the rats. There are many ways to end that relationship, but it will end.
The prevention of capitalists from consuming by seizing their wealth and limiting their income will result in their losing interest in the management of their capital and in its accumulation in the first place. Also,all limits to the consumption of capitalists must result in the destruction of incentives to increase and maintain production. The destructiveness of redistributionism is already evident in the decline of the American economic system that has taken place in recent decades.
Oops...heh, heh. Should have clicked the link to the article before posting.
In the worlds of that great philosopher, Homer Simpson:
Their "can-do" will bail out our "won't try" every time.It seems to me this attitude is implied in what Obama is selling.... The only problem is he seems deliberately trying to stifle those who "can-do" — with suffocating taxes and regulations. Ultimately this leads to an increase in the number of those who "won't try."
The Left seems utterly unable to appreciate the logic of what happens next: When one kills the Golden Goose there can be no more Golden Eggs....
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