Elemental Economics
Explained Elementarily
Things are a whole lot simpler than economists,
college professors, journalists and politicians
would have you believe
college professors, journalists and politicians
would have you believe
Here’s How It Is and Why It Is What It Is:
The folks who are getting the free stuff don't like the folks who are paying for the free stuff, because the folks who are paying for the free stuff can no longer afford to pay for both the free stuff and their own stuff.
The folks who are paying for the free stuff want the free stuff to stop, and the folks who are getting the free stuff want even more free stuff on top of the free stuff they are already getting!
Now ... The people who are forcing the people who pay for the free stuff have told the people who are RECEIVING the free stuff, that the people who are PAYING for the free stuff, are being mean, stingy, selfish, prejudiced, and racist.
So ... The people who are GETTING the free stuff have been convinced they need to hate the people who are paying for the free stuff by the people who are forcing some people to pay for their free stuff, and giving them the free stuff in the first place.
We have let the giving of free stuff go on for so long that there are now more people getting free stuff than there are paying for the free stuff.
Now understand this:
All great democracies have committed financial suicide somewhere between 200 and 250 years after being founded. The reason? The voters figured out they could vote themselves money from the treasury by electing people who promised to give them money from the treasury in exchange for electing them.
The United States officially became a Republic in 1776. Two-hundred-thirty-five years later. The number of people getting free stuff outnumbers the people paying for the free stuff.
We have one chance to change that. The 2012 Election. Changing the current Democratically controlled administration may not effect change for the better, but failure to retire the current administration is very likely to spell the end of the United States of America as we have known her.
~ Anne Animus
We have let the giving of free stuff go on for so long that there are now more people getting free stuff than there are paying for the free stuff.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, the tax base has shunk so much that the situation is unsustainable.
The folks who are getting the free stuff don't like the folks who are paying for the free stuff...
That applies on the personal level, too.
[Prepare for rant. Helps my blood pressure]
Certain family members of mine are getting "free stuff" from me and are unwilling to extend ANY reciprocity. My clams have been steamed since Christmas Eve 2009 over this issue and got resteamed the evening of July 4, 2012.
FT,
ReplyDeleteI love the graphics in this post!
Providing too much help makes children of people...
ReplyDeleteHi, AOW,
ReplyDeleteThanks you for the compliment. Finding graphics for these posts, though time consuming, is not only great fun, it's as easy as falling off that proverbial log.
With Google, despite it's growing ominous implications regarding its growing capacity to establish Centralized Mind Control we have much to be grateful for.
I just happened to see these images in passing, and thought, "YEAH! How about that? Let's GO!"
~ FT
PS: About your disappointments with surly, ungrateful relatives I couldn't be more sympathetic, however, I taught myself long ago not to expect anything but trouble, heartache and disappointment from most people.
ReplyDeleteThat may sound horribly cynical, but in adopting such thinking I have virtually guaranteed that all my surprises will be pleasant. ;-)
I understand perfectly how you feel -- and why -- but tearing ourselves up over what others OUGHT to have done and didn't is no help at all. It does nothing to mprove THEIR attitude and only serves to cause chemical reactions inside that may make us ill.
The Great Sage has spoken.
Best,
FT
All great democracies have committed financial suicide somewhere between 200 and 250 years after being founded.
ReplyDeleteCitation?
I'm Lord Acton man... "Every institution finally perishes by an excess of its own first principle."
Now you can argue that voting oneself money from the treasury constitutes an "excess" of democracy, and you would be right, but I suspect that there are far more relevant and grotesque examples of democratic "excesses" other than the emptying of the treasury that have caused democratic institutions to fail... such as the Athenian decision to launch the Syracusian expedition. ;)
200 years is a long time any ANY form of government to last, not just democracies.
ReplyDeleteIt'd sadly obvious we're deep into a period of decay, degeneracy and disintegration, FJ.
ReplyDeleteWhether we can pull out of it remains to be seen. Frankly, I doubt it. All the "signs" point to A Day of Final Reckoning looming large on the horizon.
HOWEVER, I intend to keep dancing as long as the orchestra keeps playing until The Great Ship actually does go down.
Why spend your last moments whimpering and whining? Worse yet, why spend them expressing anger and resentment?
~ FT
...as opposed to...???
ReplyDeleteI say I'll do with my "end times" whatever the 'h I want... and if it means kicking my enemies in the teeth one last time, so be it.
ReplyDeleteThe last great act of defiance.... ;)
Great Sage,
ReplyDeleteI guess that I expect more from my own family. In fact, we've always been a "clannish bunch" and never had any such problems before in ANY generation -- unless one counts the mountaineers' feuds of the first part of the 20th Century.
Actually, the "blood kin" are not the problem. The in-laws are, but only this one in-law. Strange.
Anyway, I got a good night's sleep last night. Today is another day! (paraphrase of Scarlett O'Hara)
FT,
ReplyDeleteI intend to keep dancing as long as the orchestra keeps playing until The Great Ship actually does go down.
Well, that's a good attitude to have -- particularly if one has come to the realization that one cannot wake up the comatose who prefer to pretend that the ship isn't in any danger whatsoever or the ones who insist, "Let's steer her into another iceberg. THAT will fix our problems so that she'll stay afloat."
FJ, I suspect you and Ethan Allen (see previous article) would have made a great team.
ReplyDelete~ FT
AOW, I am not an alcoholic, thank Heaven, but I am an admirer of AA's famous Serenity Prayer.
ReplyDeleteI try very hard to "accept the things I cannot change, change what I can [presumably for the better!] and have the wisdom to know the difference.
All of us could wear ourselves out beating our fists against "stone walls" of various kinds. I find it very tempting, myself, but then I think, "What possible GOOD could it accomplish?
That usually stops me from getting into too much trouble, although I admit to brooding and harboring feelings of seething, festering resentment when I believe I have been treated unjustly.
This is no good for me -- or anyone else -- however, so I try to think of Jesus on the Cross and His infinite, incredible capacity for Forgiveness.
That usually helps -- but not always. I can still boil over too easily, when provoked, I'm afraid.
It's hard to be human. ;-)
~ FT
if America had had 100 Allens, we wouldn't have needed a Washington OR a Congress.
ReplyDeleteMrs. AOW got up way too early. I was already up. Too damn hot!
ReplyDeleteToo many people have their hand out to get something from the gubmint. People that can actually fend for themselves!
I am worried about the future of America!
Greed, envy, and sloth have always been and always will be.
ReplyDeleteThis post has been shared on facebook. Hopefully many will get a sample of your writing skills. WELL DONE!
ReplyDeleteEven the village idiot has a slim chance of understanding this.
I watched the 4th of July fireworks wondering how much longer?
ReplyDeleteThere is hope in places like Wisconsin and NC as voters turned out and went conservative despite what the polls said, but what the SCOTUS did to the Constitution is troubling. The longterm ramifications may indeed be the unraveling of our Nation as we know it.
FYI-a Russain editorialist printed an article just before the election 2008 election and he predicted the US would break up into 5-6 regions as a result of the Obama Presidency.
Thank you, Average American. So glad you came here for a visit. Please stop by again, and try to make it often.
ReplyDelete~ FT