Words of Warning From 224 Years ago

[Warph]

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

[Diane Amberg]

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.

[redcliffsw]

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.