Monday, March 31, 2008

The Government and Free Corn

There was a Chemistry professor in a large college that had some exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab the Prof 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 corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come every day 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 he sees happening to America. The government keeps pushing us toward Communism/Socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs, free medical, 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, 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. '

........ Gerald Ford

2 comments:

southernjoy said...

I've never read that Jefferson quote before, but it is powerful.

LOLOL - I can guess who you WON'T be voting for!

DrW said...

I did a bit of research - should have BEFORE I posted - and it was Gerald Ford who made the comment at the end - made it in a presidential address before a joint session of Congress in 1974. That doesn't change the power of the statement, nor does it alter the fact that Thomas Jefferson is no doubt rolling around in his grave over what we are allowing to happen to our country in this time. Jefferson DID say, "I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."


Reminds me of a book I read about 10 years ago - "Death of Common Sense: How Law is Suffocating America" by Philip K. Howard. Worth reading...