An Obituary For Labor Day, 2011

There is little I can say about the economic and political situation that I have not already said in this blog. So, instead, I thought I would share an obituary that came to me via a friend that acts as either a predictor, or as a warning, your choice, of what is in store for us if change is not on the horizon.

In 1887 Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinborough, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior:
 
"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse over loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship."
 
"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following 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 into bondage." 
 
As we watch government struggle to solve our problems, i.e., the same ones our elected representatives created, think about where we might be in this progression and more importantly how to reverse it. I suggest that looking to government to solve the problems we now face is akin to asking the arsonist who lit your house on fire to put it out.