I've seen this a few times & then someone at JJRs had it in his/her sig. It's a little too close to the truth to ignore...
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover
that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on the majority always
votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a
democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the
world's great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have 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 selfishness, from selfishness to complacency
from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage."
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover
that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on the majority always
votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a
democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the
world's great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have 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 selfishness, from selfishness to complacency
from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage."
