If you're paying, I'll have top sirloin

WSJ | unknown | By Russell Roberts

[RobFromGa]

This is an excellent article. Thanks for posting.

[BallandPowder]

Powder..Patch..Ball FIRE!

you'll never see this article in the St. Louis Post Disspatched..... To bad, it could make a few people wake up.

[Eala]

People who are overeating at the expense of others should be ashamed.

But they aren't. In fact, it's practically a liberal mantra that they shouldn't be ashamed.

And good luck trying to close that restaurant...

[canuck_conservative]

That's a great analogy! Someone finally explained the problem with socialism.

Great post!!

[RobRoy]

This is why the United States is doomed, and has been since it's inception. Many of you are familiar with the following quote, penned before we were no more than a British colony. It says it all:

"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 two hundred 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 complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again into bondage."

- Alexander Frasier Tytler in his book, "The decline and fall of the Athenian republic"

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Nice piece. Hard to believe it ran in St. Louis.

[expatpat]

The only way to avoid national indigestion is to close the government restaurant where few benefit at the expense of many.

And how do you propose to do that?

[Bullish]

Unfortunately, liberals could never understand something so simple.

[tnlibertarian]

From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance; from abundance to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again into bondage."

I put us somewhere in the complacency to apathy area.

[RobRoy]

I think we're in the dependence area, at least at the beginning.

[tnlibertarian]

You may be right. At least a greater percentage of Americans are every year. And the Dems try to add to that list every year.

[RobRoy]

Gee, if only Hillary's health care had passed. I was quite aware of this quote when I was at her rally in downtown Seattle 10 years ago. If I'd had the tools I have today, I would have passed this quote around to all her supporters that were there. I would only have needed a couple hundred copies.

[lepton]

But now suppose the tab is split not at each table but across the 100 diners at all the tables. Now adding the $4 drink and dessert costs only four cents. Splurging is easy to justify now. In fact, you won't just add a drink and dessert, you'll upgrade to the steak and add a bottle of wine.

This is how group lunches at the office go. Somehow my $6 meal and $1.50 soda (already too expensive for what I'm getting) cost me $20 to $25 including the tip.

[No.6]

Punt for later reference in argument; thanks!

[tnlibertarian]

Or live here in Tennessee where we had to have a federal appeals court say it was okay (for now) to kick 200,000 "unqualified" recipients off of TennCare. This is a program that 25% of Tennesseans are dependent on. IOW this leaves 1.23 million people beholden to the State for their health care.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[Badray]

"I put us somewhere in the complacency to apathy area."

Wow! You are an optimist. I figure that we are at the last comma (I almost spelled that 'coma' and was reluctant to correct it) and moving full speed ahead.

[shezza]

I like his restaurant analogy. Kind of puts the idea of feeding at the public trough into perspective.

Here's hoping the new congress shows a little backbone and trims the fat, now that they hold the upper hand. (But I won't hold my breath.)

[citizenK]

Nice article.
It sort of complements the Dinner & Taxes e-mail posted recently on FR.

BTW, this article originally ran in the WSJ on May 18, 1995.