It seems these quotes might be relevant to today's politics. "Giving money and power to government is like giving whisky and car keys to teenage boys." One of P.J. Rourke's books.
"Owners of capital will stimulate the working class to buy more and more expensive goods, houses and technology, pushing them to take more and more expensive credits until their debt becomes unbearable. The unpaid debt will lead to bankruptcy of banks, which will have to be nationalized and the state will have to take the road which will eventually lead to communism." Karl Marx, "Das Kapital," 1867. "We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle." Winston Churchill. "I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." Thomas Jefferson.
"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of 'liberalism' they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will become a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened. I no longer need to run as a presidential candidate for the Socialist party. The democratic party has adopted our platform." Norman Thomas, six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist party of America in a 1944 speech.
I remember listening to him on the radio. A lot of people thought he should have been locked up, but it seems to me he was born 50 years too soon. Growing up in the '20s and '30s I don't recall of any entitlement programs. No health insurance, free school lunches, no food stamps, no social security. I think the township trustee looked after those really poor. Any entitlement program enacted becomes nearly impossible to end as people get dependent on it. According to government actuaries the programs now, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security will end up consuming nearly 100 percent of government incomes by the year 2020. Enacting an even larger one is now being planned with health care. At my age it is doubtful if I will live to see the results of it. I'm sure the finale will be interesting.
