Boy... don't these words ring a bell in this day and time:
"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 civilization 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."
Penned by Professor Alexander Tyler, a Scottish historian, who in 1787 wrote about the fall of the Athenian republic over 2000 years earlier.
*largesse - generous bestowal of gifts
Interestingly enough none of that can be verified to actually have been written by him/he, of several different last name spellings. Check out what Loren Collins had to say. It's an interesting piece regardless of who actually wrote it.
You bet it's an interesting piece. People have learned how to raid the Treasury.
Grants are another method to take the money from the public Treasury.