I don't know who wrote this but it's sure worth considering....
Catching Wild Pigs
A chemistry professor in a large college had some exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab the Professor noticed one young man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back, and stretching as if his back hurt.
The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new communist government.
In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked, 'Do you know how to catch wild pigs?'
The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line. The young man said this was no joke. 'You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting some corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come everyday to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in The last side. The pigs, who are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat, you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd.
Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity.
The young man then told the professor that is exactly what happened in his own country and what he sees happening to America. The government keeps pushing us toward socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tobacco subsidies, welfare, medicine, drugs, unemployment checks, etc. While we continually lose our freedoms -- just a little at a time.
One should always remember: There is no such thing as a free lunch! Also, a politician will never provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it yourself.
Also, if you see that all of this wonderful government 'help' is a problem confronting the future of democracy in America, then you might want to send this on to your friends. If you think the free ride is essential to your way of life then you will probably delete this email, but God help you when the gate slams shut!
"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have"
Thomas Jefferson | 
49 comments:
Even though the wild pigs weren't showing up and eating any corn, they were FORCED into paying for corraling other pigs over the course of their entire lives. So why shouldn't they expect to receive corn in the same quantities that were distributed to the elder generations of pigs once they got penned?
We have a private social security system that works MUCH better than the government Ponzi scheme. It's run by private mutual fund companies and brokerage houses. If you're smart, THAT is the social security system that YOU should be investing in and relying upon for retirement. Because everything you give to the government, regardless of its' "lock box" or "trust fund" status is not in a locked box or trust fund and it won't be there when you go to retire. It's a government TAX and a personal expense (NOT an investment), pure and simple. Any politician that tells you otherwise is LYING to you.
Yeah, if you invested in Dow futures in 200 you haven't beaten inflation.
The coming correction is going to send you negative and that doesn't even take into account inflation and lost opportunity costs.
Farmer, you sound like someone who would buy a variable annuity.
beamish, as a tea party member, I have to ask where you get that statistic, since I've never been asked to participate in a tea party poll regarding anything.
The people I know, support Paul Ryan's bill, as do I.
Furthermore, I don't know any welfare state socialist democrats in either one of the tea parties I belong to.
I feel you're playing fast and loose with this subject because of some strange notion you have that the countrywide TP movement is behind Ron Paul, which couldn't be farther from the truth.
Thanks, Z! I reposted this.
Beamish, all I know is that when I turned 65, I went on Medicare. I have had NO ONE know at my door and tell me that they have a better plan for me. I don't have a choice. I don't think that illegals should benefit from programs that they have never paid into.
This pig analogy is very good. Most conservatives wouldn't need it, because we already know the history of the socialist agenda.
The left on the other hand, seems to think if we have it here in America, somehow it would be different.
To them I say, just look already at how this administration is picking winners and losers, raising taxes for a welfare state, disallowing oil drilling, clamping down on coal plants, establishing a health rationing board, and growing government as quickly as possible, determined to raise the debt ceiling again, etc.
This is no accident, this is tyranny, and if Obama is re-elected the hammer will come down on everyone, including the idiots who don't believe it can happen, when it already is.
Farmer, you sound like someone who would buy a variable annuity.
Bwah-ha-ha-ha!
Isn't that what the runners of the current government Ponzi scheme, also known as Social Security, are now admitting... that there are no "fixed" annuities?
Even the Chinese are learning that there are no "guaranteed fixed returns".
Our current politician's promises of paying off tomorrow are no better than Henry VIII's were in the past.
Pris, we have no health care rationing now? Everyone gets what the need through the magic of the free (LMAO) market?
from Wikipedia:
Royal finances
Henry VIII inherited a vast fortune from his father Henry VII who had, in contrast to his son, been frugal and careful with money. This fortune was estimated to £1,250,000 (£375 million by today's standards). Much of this wealth was spent by Henry on maintaining his court and household, including many of the building works he undertook on royal palaces. Tudor monarchs had to fund all the expenses of government out of their own income. This income came from the Crown lands that Henry owned as well as from customs duties like tonnage and poundage, granted by parliament to the king for life. During Henry's reign the revenues of the Crown remained constant (around £100,000), but were eroded by inflation and rising prices brought about by war. Indeed it was war and Henry's dynastic ambitions in Europe that meant that the surplus he had inherited from his father was exhausted by the mid-1520s. Whereas Henry VII had not involved Parliament in his affairs very much, Henry VIII had to turn to Parliament during his reign for money, in particular for grants of subsidies to fund his wars. The Dissolution of the Monasteries provided a means to replenish the treasury and as a result the Crown took possession of monastic lands worth £120,000 (£36 million) a year. But Henry had to debase the coinage in 1526 and 1539 in order to solve his financial problems, and despite his ministers efforts to reduce costs and waste at court, Henry died in debt.
We don't have a truly free market you dolt.
beamish, as a tea party member, I have to ask where you get that statistic, since I've never been asked to participate in a tea party poll regarding anything.
That's the downside of the "leaderless resistance" model, isn't it? [Historical reference intended] None of the "cells" have any unity or communication with the others or any organizational heirarch above them all. Any Tea Party group can be anything and everything, and is.
The 70% of self-identified "Tea Party supporters" figure comes from a Mclatchy-Marist poll, conducted April 10th - 14th, 2011 in a nation-wide poll.
Another not-so-surprising result from the self-identified "Tea Party supporters" polled is that they favor tax increases on "the rich" to keep Medicare and Medicaid solvent.
THESE ARE NOT CONSERVATIVES OR LIBERTARIANS BY ANY MANGLED STRETCH OF THE IMAGINATION.
These are Democrats, pissed off that the Weather Underground wing of their party beat out the Ku Klux Klan wing of their party to nominate a black man. They'd be ecstatic about Obama's policies if only he had less melanin in his skin.
The people I know, support Paul Ryan's bill, as do I.
I don't. Ryan is trying to save Medicare with block grants. I don't want Medicare saved whatsoever. I want it killed. Eliminated.
It's the right thing to do, and the right-wing thing to do.
(Who delivered the Republican response to Obama's State of the Union address back in January? Paul Ryan or Michelle Bachmann? I forget.)
But even if there is a subset of "Tea Party supporters" that support the Ryan plan, they're a very small minority among the tax-and-spend Democrats they're astroturfing with.
The poll is coming up on two months old. Where's the outcry from the Tea Party that reflects that indeed the Tea Party wants cuts to Medicare?
Furthermore, I don't know any welfare state socialist democrats in either one of the tea parties I belong to.
Ask them if they want to see Medicare eliminated entirely and replaced with callous laughter at all the crying grannies. You'll spot them.
I feel you're playing fast and loose with this subject because of some strange notion you have that the countrywide TP movement is behind Ron Paul, which couldn't be farther from the truth.
You forgot about Donald Trump, Herman Cain, and that one chick from Alaska the "RINO" passed off as a "conservative" running mate.
I see the Tea Party going the way of Ross Perot's "Reform Party." Pretty soon you'll have a repeat of something like a neo-fascist Pat Buchanan figure and a neo-communist Lenora Fulani figure finding common ground in their anti-Semitism and joining forces suing to win rights to federal election funding over a guy that actually thinks he can levitate.
I'll stay away from the Tea Party. Leftists make my skin crawl.
Duckbutt you know little about the Mutual Fund Market as is evidenced by your ignorant remarks as to being negative or having lost money.
I have been in the Mutual Fund market for over 20 years now and have never lost money. I am not making the 15 - 20% on my investments as I have in the recent past but I am still way ahead of those who have placed their funds in only one or two stocks. I am still making in the above average range which is not bad considering how screwed up Obama and the Left's no plan has caused the market to go.
Duckbutt,maybe you need to find a new Mutual Fund manager if your funds are not making money.
wow scary stuff Z but we must face it or else lose our nation forever..............((hugs))
Beamish, all I know is that when I turned 65, I went on Medicare. I have had NO ONE know at my door and tell me that they have a better plan for me. I don't have a choice. I don't think that illegals should benefit from programs that they have never paid into.
Why not? Most retired US citizens take out of Medicare and other social programs a hell of a lot more than they ever paid into them in their entire lives. What's the difference?
I don't want to save America's social programs. I want to save America from its social programs.
Did the fight against socialism stop sometime in the last 30 years?
Even though the wild pigs weren't showing up and eating any corn, they were FORCED into paying for corraling other pigs over the course of their entire lives. So why shouldn't they expect to receive corn in the same quantities that were distributed to the elder generations of pigs once they got penned?
Because despite their lifetime of forced contributions, they want to eat more than the two years worth of corn they "paid" for in the third year and every year after that.
And the next batch of pigs are wondering if it'd be cheaper to just kill the pigs living off their largesse.
"Pris, we have no health care rationing now? Everyone gets what the need through the magic of the free (LMAO) market?"
My aunt had a heart bypass three years ago, at the age of 86. She's still going strong.
My doctor told me that in Britain, you can't get a bypass done beyond the age of seventy.
There may be cases here where it's decided, given a patient's general health that they couldn't qualify for bypass surgery, or some other procedure, but so far it's not based on "zero tolerance" when it comes to age.
Elbro's right though, we don't have a true free market now, but it will be even less free, with govt. bureaucrats deciding winners and losers.
We will all be considered for care based on age, and cost effectiveness. We will be told what to eat, to exercise, and to engage in whatever the government decides is necessary to qualify for care. And you can kiss the Hippocratic Oath goodbye.
A true free market would be based on competition in the medical field, without government, or even insurance, being a barrier to obtaining care.
If not for those barriers, prices would go down through competition by doctors and hospitals. You can buy a car on time, why not a medical procedure?
When Mr. pris and I had our first baby, she was a preemie, and had to remain in the hospital until she weighed five pounds. About three weeks. We were young with little money. Insurance at that time, was minimal, just beginning, and it paid $50.00 for pregnancy. That's it.
We borrowed the money to pay the hospital bill.
At that time medical care was solely between the patient and the doctor, and we were billed directly from the doctor, no middleman. The same with the hospital.
Have it your way beamish, but anyone can call himslf a TP supporter. Personally, sometimes I think you'd find fault with anyone who doesn't think exactly like you do.
I think you like being on the outside looking in. That way you're not responsible for anything.
Frankly, I don't trust polls. Not these days especially.
We here are focused on working to get conservatives elected. That's what the movement is interested in, and what we did last November.
It's easy to sit back, criticise, and do nothing. I just can't do that. I have children and a grandchild to consider, and they are the reason I have to be involved.
Btw, I like Herman Cain and Sarah Palin. They will probably not be in the running, but I like them and their directness.
I resent your implications beamish. You go too far when you mention anti-semitism in the same breath with the TP movement.
You'll stay away from the Tea Party, because it's too much trouble for you to take responsibility for what you do.
Therefore, you'll exaggerate and find fault, to justify your own inaction.
Because despite their lifetime of forced contributions, they want to eat more than the two years worth of corn they "paid" for in the third year and every year after that.
You obviously haven't been looking at the Social Security statements they send you every couple of years... 2.9% of annual wages, uncapped since 1993. Not many people go through the original contributed $100 grand in benefits the first two years of retirement, let alone the INTEREST that accrued on those FORCED investments over the course of thirty years.
Oh, THAT's right, NO interest accrued on that $100 grand, since it was always a TAX and not an INVESTMENT.
Hope Medicare didn't pay for that Pris. Wouldn't want no nanny state.
What happens under the Ryan budget?
We don't have a truly free market.
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Ah, the war cry of the Libertarian. If we just went to complete laissez-faire everything would be resolved.
Perfect for people who have been taught by right wing media never to trust anything but their talk show masters.
Ah, the war cry of the Libertarian. If we just went to complete laissez-faire everything would be resolved.
So you just admitted we don't have a free market. You're one giant contradiction there duhkkky.
duhkkky one will never understand why someone likes you can't see the problem with government intervention in free enterprise, while at the same time blaming the very system that gives a guy like you a six figure salary for cutting and pasting.
As most of the commenters here would certainly agree that taxing a tanning salon an extra 10% seems rather innocuous it also is enough to drive people out of business.
You see the gubmint as all benevolent and are happy to 'tithe' to the same gubmint that wastes millions studying dope smoking menstruating monkeys. But then again I am talking to a blithering idiot.
"What happens under the Ryan budget?"
America's economy survives?
Don't believe everything you hear about it, Ducky. I'm actually starting to feel sorry for people like you who believe only the msm...very scary.
At least Conservatives news has both sides of every issue; it would be refreshing to hear CNN or the networks do the same.
Elbro "...is enough to drive people out of business."
Dems don't seem to care about that: tax small businesses till they have to close, close down corporations, tax the rich even more until they can't afford anything anymore, close California's Central Valley with all the economic and personal ramifications because of a small fish, close West TX oil because of a lizard,....
Oh...and promise everyone free everything...
just KEEP BORROWING FROM CHINA...that's the Dem answer. unreal.
Whether medical care--or any other economic good--is determined by market forces or by a government agency, it is rationed in the sense that people will not get as much of it as they want.
I don't think it's a question of rationing v. not rationing. I think it's a question of who decides how benefits are rationed. In a free market, the power to decide is dispersed over all of the population. When government agencies decide, the power is concentrated in the hands of a few. I think the American Revolution was a result on that fear of absolute, concentrated power.
big fat tio mike
I thought you weren't going to do any more posts about Nancy Pelosi ....?
Mike, excellent comment;
By the way, you're in excellent shape, why the BIG FAT TIO!? :-)
Mustang....good one :-)
Oh, THAT's right, NO interest accrued on that $100 grand, since it was always a TAX and not an INVESTMENT.
How well can you get by on just 3% of your annual income? 3% of your annual income kicked in over 33 years lets you live off of Social Security for a year before you're eating corn someone else paid for.
On average, most American retirees have exhausted their way through "what they paid in all their lifes" in the second year of their retirement.
And on average, most American retirees live a lot longer than the two year's worth of retirement Social Security they actually paid for.
That's precisely why the "I paid in all my life" argument is utter bullshit.
So, let's get this straight, Beamish.
Those who have paid in for years and counted on Social Security need to be dropped into food lines because Social Security isn't Conservative?
Or do you think there should be an age set that gets to keep their soc. sec. because they believed that our economy wouldn't ever have to face what we're facing now?
Have it your way beamish, but anyone can call himslf a TP supporter. Personally, sometimes I think you'd find fault with anyone who doesn't think exactly like you do.
Nah. People who don't think I do have a chance to be persuasive. But most of the time, they're not.
I think you like being on the outside looking in. That way you're not responsible for anything.
Sure I am. I'm responsible for not being a part of something that disgusts me.
Frankly, I don't trust polls. Not these days especially.
I examine sample sizes and margins of error. The poll I've cited had a 3 point margin of error. That means anywhere from 67% to 73% of self-identified "Tea Party supporters" are welfarare statists. Which is still the clear majority of them.
We here are focused on working to get conservatives elected. That's what the movement is interested in, and what we did last November.
Then what in the hell is the fascination with Donald Trump about?
It's easy to sit back, criticise, and do nothing. I just can't do that. I have children and a grandchild to consider, and they are the reason I have to be involved.
Oh, I assure you, I'm standing up, criticizing, and opposing the Tea Party quite vocally.
Btw, I like Herman Cain and Sarah Palin. They will probably not be in the running, but I like them and their directness.
Herman Cain loses me on his advocacy of going back to the gold standard, a position which is like a neon sign you can hold up in economics class to indicate that you're an idiot. I have an acute case of Palin fatigue.
I resent your implications beamish. You go too far when you mention anti-semitism in the same breath with the TP movement.
Ron Paul. New World Order / international banker conspiracy theory garbage. The house is built from the same wood.
You'll stay away from the Tea Party, because it's too much trouble for you to take responsibility for what you do.
Actually, I stay away from the Tea Party because I'm not a leftist.
Therefore, you'll exaggerate and find fault, to justify your own inaction.
But I'm not inactive. I will vote for a conservative candidate. Going to the Tea Party to find one is like shopping for dog food in an auto parts store.
So, let's get this straight, Beamish. Those who have paid in for years and counted on Social Security need to be dropped into food lines because Social Security isn't Conservative?
No, they need to be dropped into food lines when their "lifetime of contributions" is exhausted. When on average is within the second year of their retirement.
Maybe then they'll drop their pretentions of being "active" and "responsible" and go get a job as a Wal-Mart greeter and pull their own weight.
Or do you think there should be an age set that gets to keep their soc. sec. because they believed that our economy wouldn't ever have to face what we're facing now?
Nope. The only thing tragic about people crying about not getting water from a dry well is that their suffering won't all be caught on camera to enjoy on YouTube with popcorn.
I hope you never run out of money, Beamish. In bad health, family living far away....
I sincerely hope not. It's very easy to think like you do at forty, believe me
I hope you never run out of money, Beamish. In bad health, family living far away....
I sincerely hope not. It's very easy to think like you do at forty, believe me
On the contrary, it's easy to think like you do at age three.
People tend to live like there's not a safety net beneath them, if there isn't one.
I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone trying to argue against a "conservative" plan for wealth redistribution.
What we're dancing around is that you want to preserve "help" for people who foolishly retired with nothing but an appetite for the government teat.
People that invested what they had after the government took its cut into having a retirement not beholden to the whims of 536 people who believe their laws can affect the weather are better off than those that see retirement as going to the mailbox every month for their sustenance rations.
And those people are being pressed to pay to become those living the rationed income life.
The thing about starving to death is this: it only happens once.
All humanitarian crises can be reduced by 50% by letting half the people starve to death.
Why not avert the humanitarian crisis instead?
Wouldn't it be weird if government didn't take over 50% of your lifetime income in taxes and fees and you had the money to take care of yourself and your family and voluntarily give charity and such?
I know, private sector solutions. Crazy libertarian - conservative talk.
Hey look Sarah Palin's bus is going to Graceland!
I don't get how you call this story a parable of socialism. It's clearly fascism and that's the prevue of the right these days.
Bd...do you READ?
I'm almost aghast at your ridiculous comment!!! maybe you don't understand it?
I don't get how you call this story a parable of socialism. It's clearly fascism and that's the prevue of the right these days.
Except for that inconvenient fact that historically fascism is the form of government that nationalizes socialism to centrally plan everything in a state from industrial production to medical care providers while recruiting labor union members into a paramilitary police force to carry out state seizures of private property of centrally undesired and targeted demographic bodies decided upon by a democratically unaccountable body of czars, er, advisors.
Fascism is government with an advertising department.
beamish, that's the best example of liberal nonsense ever: Fascism is the Right.
It was invented years ago and even Conservative pundits ignore it when they're told that..Piers Morgan mentioned it to Coulter the other night and all she could do was hold up her book, say BUY IT and smile...she completely missed it.
And, another set of idiot Americans hear Morgan and think "Yup!" It's astonishing.
Z
I think Coulter is utterly brilliant, so maybe I'm biased, but I don't think she is under any illusion that fascism is a manifestation of conservatism. In the interview, Piers Morgan said that Gustav Lebon (the father of the groupthink idea whom Coulter quotes extensively--I'm guessing I didn't get his name quite right) was read extensively by right wing fascists Hitler and Mussolini. She could have corrected him for asserting that the fascists were right-wing. However, Morgan's goal was to discredit Lebon by lumping him with Hitler and Mussolini. Coulter was objecting to the implication that Lebon was philisophical kin with the dictators. Morgan's statement had enough errors that Coulter had to decide which to address.
The "big fat" in the signature is something of a family joke.
bftm
Ask not what your country can do for you, ask how you can get out of that insane subcription fee.
Mike, I'm glad you saw it; that's exactly right. I know that wasn't her subject and she was moving in another direction and Piers caught her off guard, but I DID tell her, from the safety of my couch, "Ann, you MISSED YOUR CHANGE!" ;)
By the way, I think she's utterly brilliant, too, but I have NEVER seen anybody sell their book like she always does; it's like she needs the money for braces or something? you want to say "Ann, you've got to be stinking rich by now...please represent conservatism before you represent your darned books!"
I had elderly friends who moved from my building here in CA to an EXTREMELY tony$$$ old age home in CT where Ann's folks were, they've both died by now, so with inheritance and her book sales, etc., she can't be hurting so badly that she has to push the book THAT hard!! It's almost embarrassing!
A friend's son goes skiing with her and sees her when she's in L.A....he says she's a fantastic friend.
Z
Tell your friend's son to say hi to Ann for me and that I think she's a fantastic columnist.
bftm
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