“ALEXIS de TOCQUEVILLE WAS RIGHT!”

2 PARAGRAPHS 4 LIBERTY: #306

Back in 1838, Alexis de Tocqueville who, as you know, authored the seminal book entitled Democracy in America, was supposed to have said “When the public discovers they can vote themselves money from the public treasury the (American) experiment will be over.” Many people like me are concerned that, with this recent $1.9 trillion bill, with all of its flagrant handouts, we are steadily reaching that result. And, as shown below, the money is mostly not going to individuals, but instead is going to numerous progressive pet projects and supporters, such as the “bribes” being paid to teachers’ unions to re-open some of the public schools!

First of all, the federal government doesn’t have that money to give, so what it is “borrowing” will have to be paid back by our children and grandchildren. (This means that the federal government will be spending an average of $43,000 of our tax money every minute for the rest of the 2021 calendar year! It also means that, when you do the math of dividing $1.9 trillion by about 350 million people who live here, this debt adds up to more than $5,000 per person – which is much more than the touted handout of $1,400 to some households.) Secondly, these handouts to individuals often result in many of them receiving more money to stay home than they would earn by working – and that is a harmful disincentive. And, third, much of that money is bailing out states like California, Illinois and New York that are laden with inefficient and bloated bureaucracies and agencies, with the result that those federal gifts will simply postpone the day that the recipient states will be forced to focus upon their financial irresponsibility. So those recipients “voting themselves money” are in many ways doing lasting damage to who and what we are as a country. Please help us spread the word that Alexis de Tocqueville was right and, since it is our government, it is our responsibility to spread the alarm and to stop this harmful spending!

Two more timeless quotes from Alexis de Tocqueville: First: “The democratic tendency . . . leads more increasingly to multiply the privileges of the state and to circumscribe the rights of private persons.” And second: “No citizen is so obscure that it is not very dangerous to allow him to be oppressed. . .”