“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 civilizations has been 200 years. Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, 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 dependence, from dependence back again to bondage.” -Alexander Tytler
According to Wikipedia, the quote was actually first attributed to a Scottish historian named Alexander Tytler. Snopes also has an entry on a version of the quote that was passed around via email after the elections in the year 2000. They point to research done by a Georgia attorney which concludes that the quote probably originated in the mid-20th century. But regardless of where it comes from, it seems especially relevant in our times, when the greatest threat to our economy is not war or famine or lack of innovation, but rather the fact that we cannot keep up with the cost of our own entitlements. Along with the above quote, there is usually also a list that’s attributed to either Tocqueville or Tytler, but actually comes from a businessman named H.W. Prentis. In a 1943 speech, he described the cycle that nations go through like this:
•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 dependence;
•From dependence back into bondage
If the entire quote did come from the 1940s, that means it was probably written in response to the New Deal programs, which included the first entitlements in the United States.
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