Letter to the Editor

Why democracies fail

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Dear Editor,

"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. These nations have progressed through this 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 apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependence back into bondage."

-- Alexander Fraser Tytler

I believe this was written in 1779. Any thoughts by fellow readers?

Randy Messinger,

McCook, Nebraska

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  • The Roman Emoire fell in large part because the government could not take any more money from the workers to pay for the government. Greece, Spain, France are all in that shape now. The US is fast approaching that now. A soaring debit and rising taxes that even if the government took every penny from the top 10% the total raised would only run the government fro a couple of days and then there would be no rich to tap again. We are in real trouble and still on the track to continue out of control federal spending. 42 cents of every dollar spent is already borrowed money.

    -- Posted by dennis on Wed, Jan 16, 2013, at 11:16 AM
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