Scramble their Brains (more likely Fire and Forget)
1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation
These are the tenets of socialism.
Having lived under this system in my youth, I have since been extremely thankful to have freedom, albeit on a limited basis.
The problem with the vast majority of the OWS protesters is not that they are either aging hippies, the Great Unwashed or simply useful idiots, but that they have never had to live under socialist/communist rule, so have no freaking idea what they are jabbering about.
6. Helping the helpless to some degree can be justified. Helping the clueless, even one little bit, cannot.
7. Giving too much money or for too long a time to those who could normally earn it on their own is the surest way to destroy a person’s incentive to work hard or even work at all.
I’d argue that 6. should be “whoever earns the money should get to decide what is done with it.
8. If no-one wants to pay what you think your work is worth, then you’re overvaluing yourself. In a contest between yourself and the universe, bet on the universe.
9. The minimum wage is 0. Any step between 0 and what people can be paid will be the hardest on the people with the least skills and experience.
10. Job security provisions guarantee that less people who are a risk to work will be hired.
11. Experience is valuable. The first jobs you get will not pay a lot of money, but will prove what kind of a worker you are to later employers.
12. You get what you pay for. If you can earn more on welfare or a jobs program than you will busting your butt, there’s going to be a lot of people on welfare and in jobs programs. This may help in the short term, but in the long term it forms a dependency similar to heroin.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
So why is the government in debt then?
Because someone voluntarily lent them the money they’ve spent.(in our name)
If the government had to actually take it first it wouldn’t be in debt.(and there would probably be some resistance too)
You want to mess with lefty heads, go on one of their blogs and explain to them what NSDAP stands for.
Or just say: “Most leftists are not evil; stupid, clueless, deluded, brainwashed or emotionally stunted, but not evil; but the left always leads to evil. There are no exceptions.”
That the left might have a rather striking track-record of taking things to bad places has never occurred to most of them.
6. Helping the helpless to some degree can be justified. Helping the clueless, even one little bit, cannot.
~Robert W.
That was done very well by the churches before the government got involved.
The churches even did hospitals better than the government does.
Rob, you described life in the Soviet Union.
Alienated, exactly.
“From each according to his ability, to each according to his need!”
Except for the first part…skip that…
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.
attributed to eighteenth-century Scots historian Alexander Tytler
And now the government that has no money of its own wants to spend 28 million dollars to re create the war of 1812 with our money. Should’nt they have asked us first if we all think this is a great idea ? Since Canada was’nt even a nation back then should’nt the British be paying for this ?. Does anyone give a rats patut what happened in 1812 ?. I love history but that was then and this is now. For 28 million why not make a cheap movie with the possibility of getting our money back in ticket sales ?. Still….it’s our money, ask us first.
I ‘ll save you all the trouble. Because I’m a nice guy.
Wikipedia:
The NSDAP/AO was the Foreign Organization branch of the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP). AO is the abbreviation of the German compound word Auslands-Organisation (English: Foreign Organization). Although it would be correctly written in one word, the Nazis chose an obsolete spelling with a hyphen.
It may just be a rumour but I had someone tell me that the anarchist group Direct Action has an office in the 100 block of West Pender (north side) beside the old Lotus Hotel, that has its rent paid by the federal government. Sounds crazy enough to be true. Will be a busy place come Oct. 15, if true; what? (That’s Vancouver, of course). don’t suppose anyone at this site could confirm or disprove that?
The marshmallow experiment is a famous test of a concept conducted by Walter Mischel at Stanford University and discussed by Daniel Goleman in his popular work.
In the 1960s, a group of four-year olds were given a marshmallow and promised another, only if they could wait 20 minutes before eating the first one.
Some children could wait and others could not.
The researchers then followed the progress of each child into adolescence, and demonstrated that those with the ability to wait were better adjusted and more dependable (determined via surveys of their parents and teachers), and scored an average of 210 points higher on the Scholastic Aptitude Test.
In over 600 children who took part in the experiment, a minority ate the marshmallow immediately. Of those who attempted to delay, one third deferred gratification long enough to get the second marshmallow. Age was a major determinant of deferred gratification.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EjJsPylEOY
Got that?
Only 33% could “capitalize” on their self control to get that second marshmallow nearly 50 years ago.
The other 66% are who the Leftists can depend on as their constituency even if those people understand the rules and know that if they delay their gratification they will be rewarded by their own perseverance.
Explaining the rules won’t sway the 66% to earn a reward through delayed gratification if the Leftists promise to steal the second earned marshmallow from the 33%ers and give it to them.
$53,000 a year income puts a person in the ‘Top 1%’ according to ‘globalrichlist.com’ I hope that any protester making that kind of money has it beaten out of them by their fellow travellers…
Further to my last comment:
The type who immediately ate the first marshmallow and didn’t even attempt to earn the second are down there at Wall Street stinking up the place.
Some of those old hippies down there might even have been part of the original Marshmallow experiment.
The five points in the thread topic should be (at least part of) the Republican platform in 2012.
GOP Debate – Cain Clarifies, Doubles-Down #OccupyWallSt Criticism
http://www.breitbart.tv/gop-debate-cain-clarifies-doubles-down-occupywallst-criticism/
One of the premises I see in the points above is that the economy is a zero-sum game and, curiously, that is exactly what socialists believe.
What governments have done is to almost destroy the creation of new wealth. Much of this can be laid at the feet of CAGW as US unemployment rates would be far lower if the US was now drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico and in N. Alaska and energy costs were far lower than they currently are.
As long as wealth is being created fast enough it is possible to buy off the non-productive and make sure they have enough money to keep themselves stoned and passive. Also, private charities do a far better job at actually making people productive again unlike government welfare programs who need a large dependent population to support the huge numbers of snivel servants who deal with them.
If the protesters had an IQ higher than their shoe size, they’d be protesting in front of the white house demanding an end to insane environmental regulations and an end to CAGW based policies. They would be tearing down windmills and occupying the offices of Wall Street firms that have been profiting from CO2 trading.
Through the creation of new wealth, the US poor are now the richest poor people in the world. It doesn’t help matters any if our own side buys into the zero-sum game economic model of socialism.
So, you wouldn’t be saying that Dildo McGuilty’s Ontario is in trouble…would you?
The old USSR used to claim 99% employment. Even tho let’s say in a public washroom, one attendant would hand you 2 pieces of toilet paper, while 2 others swept the floor etc. The common saying before the final collapse was, “They Pretend To Pay Us, and We Pretend To Work”. When the collapse finally came, the only thing that saved them was their Dacha’s and what food they could produce for themselves each summer at the Dacha and bring back to the city…
I believe in the Golden Rule , he who makes the Gold makes the Rule’s.
North of 60: There’s an interesting article about that “largess” remark here: http://www.lorencollins.net/tytler.html
Well i think something is going on here soemthing very bad . I don’t like the feel of this and i beleive this is a coordinated effort to keep obaam in office and no matter what the republicains do the fix is in …something i am not sure what but something is at work out there there are people all over plotting against the u.s. from outside and in and i think they are all working together, it just does not seem right something doesn’t fit , i mean besides the protesters being silly for not attacking pelosi, or bernanke , or obama is foolish , all of the leftist power is starting to come together while the republicans are ripping each other apart and no matter how stupid or foolish the left are they i think will win another presidencey , Obama is being foisted , propped up by someone or something , Where is the american will to fight? What is happening i cannot say but it is nut’s .
How can al of these thing’s be going on at the same time , america is being stripped and weakend for some sort of attack i beleive , i believe they are trying to break america financially to the point of not just being broke but so that it can never recover NEVER recover , and that will set up the ability of some country to invade …yes invade america on her soil i beleive this is definatley at play here be it the muslims,chinease,iran,russia,nkorea , the leftist commies in america all working together , and the cons are juist letting it happen that is the biggest thing i cant understrand why they aren ot fighting back CAIN is the only one who is literally trying to bring america back to what it was. the rest are tring to tinker with the current system , sorry i know i sound crazier than the walls street protesters right now but something is going on and it aint good.
I summary,
Every ignored reality prepares it’s revenge..
The problem with leftism is that eventually people realize it mean ” they will take m,y effort and give it to others” & they stop cooperating.
Then leftists realize to achieve utopia they, need to force people, usually a minority of very dedicated leftists volunteer themselves for that task and efficiently organize the mechanism of repression and coercion.
At first all is well, the really recalcitrant conservatives and bourgeois flee or see the error the error of their ways and stop working.
Then more and more wreckers are identified and forced to submit.
The bad news is that a lot of leftist then suddenly wake up and “think that’s not what we meant” but the problem is it’s usually as the rubber hoses and truncheons are beating sense into their disintegrating skulls.
Loki, well said @ 4:47.
RFB, exactly. It is different today, but you can still see some of the vestiges of that system. For example, two dozen fellows with rakes and shovels paving a an apartment building parking lot and only one motorized hand guided walk behind packer.
Fred2, yes, that is about the way it worked. Generally speaking, nobody gave a rip, as they felt no sense of ownership, just coercion.
Oz points out, “Only 33% could “capitalize” on their self control to get that second marshmallow nearly 50 years ago.
The other 66% are who the Leftists can depend on as their constituency even if those people understand the rules and know that if they delay their gratification they will be rewarded by their own perseverance.”
And in the old days, the 66% that ate their marshmallows now, died in the cold winter so natural selection rewarded delayed gratification and planning. Now our nanny state has insulated the selfish instant gratification crowd from the negative consequences of their “me me”, “now, now” actions by taking the product of those who plan for a hard winter and spreading it among the instant gratification crowd. Thereby they hasten the downfall of our society. The planners do not have their marshmallow to live on. Nor do their instant gratification seeking neighbors. Bad winter (or sub-prime mortgage crisis) equals death for all.
Loki when I read the 5 points I see an aggressive defense of property rights. I do not see a restatement of the dismal science. I think one of the major problems we are facing now is that our property (the fruits of our labour) is being expropriated and redistributed through government actions and that is bringing our society down. As you noted, when wealth is being created at a faster rate than property is being expropriated, society can overlook this. But when the rate of expropriation exceeds the rate of new wealth creation – – then the people get their pitch forks and torches and occupy wall street and hold tea parties.
Fred2 has a good point. Eventually the central planned socialist state must find that minority to persecute. And just as in ww2 under Hitler that minority recieved scant sympathy. Obama and others of that ilk have chosen another minority to attack this time. The Rich, and they are also not a very popular minority and get very little sympathy. This could get out of hand very quickly..
The theem of the protesters is”we are the 99%”,meaning the rich are the 1% and the rest are the 99%. Well,there is another 1% and that is the jewish population.It is but a small step for history being repeated and joining the two then the protesters will do what Soros and company set them up for.
Source: Adrian Rogers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Rogers
It is worth noting that number (5) differs from the quote cited above.
(1) You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the industrious out of it.
(2) You don’t multiply wealth by dividing it.
(3) Government cannot give anything to anybody that it doesn’t first take from somebody else.
(4) Whenever somebody receives something without working for it, somebody else has to work for it without receiving.
(5) The worst thing that can happen to a nation is for half of the people to get the idea they don’t have to work because somebody else will work for them, and the other half to get the idea that it does no good to work because they don’t get to enjoy the fruits of their labor.”
Adrian Rogers 1931 – 2005
Paraphasing Ludwig von Mises:
In a completely free market economy there is NO involuntary unemployment.
If you haven’t got around to it yet, do read Frédéric Bastiat: The Law and also Economic Sophisms.
Would that these OWS protesters had been exposed to some of this wisdom. But of course, an understanding of economics is inimical to the state.
Timely and excellent video on just this topic. Two part video, part one below, featuring a 1986 interview with a defected high level KGB agent/journalist – everything he speaks of is in today’s headlines. Islam is using these techniques as well.
How To Brainwash a Nation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeMZGGQ0ERk
There is a certain period of living without working and it’s ramifications. After about two or three years a sort of inertia seeps in.
Most people who post here, would know of working day in and day out. Sometimes it seems to be somewhat of a bind to some. Yet they are in harness. They get up and go to it. For chronic unemployed to start in, once the inertia seeps in, is an effort in it’s self. A harsh word from an employer would send them off, more than likely.
I remember a debacle in Sault Ste Marie about 15 years ago. The railroad had about 30 metres of clearance between the backs of residential houses. Weeds towered very high and complaints were made. The railroad company used a weed killer called “Spike”. People had to be evacuated to the city’s finest hostelry. People had become ill. It cost over a million dollars by someone or other- maybe the tax payer.
If about 100 able bodied men and women on welfare, had been instructed to report in the summer, for a mere eight hours work in one week. Say 20 persons at one time to report to a pick up point. This to do simple cutting and rolling, it could have been cleared, without even crossing the tracks.
Alas. forced labour methinks!
Five brilliant and truthful points but unfortunately the left is unwilling to hear them and incapable of understanding them.