Perhaps our elected “representatives” could take a few lessons from Davy Crockett. Whether this actually happened or not is contested, but the lesson is well worth learning:
“The power of collecting and disbursing money at pleasure is the most dangerous power that can be entrusted to man, particularly under our system of collecting revenue by a tariff, which reaches every man in the country, no matter how poor he may be, and the poorer he is the more he pays in proportion to his means. What is worse, it presses upon him without his knowledge where the weight centers, for there is not a man in the United States who can ever guess how much he pays to the government. So you see, that while you are contributing to relieve one, you are drawing it from thousands who are even worse off than he.”
“If you have the right to give to one, you have the right to give to all; and, as the Constitution neither defines charity nor stipulates the amount, you are at liberty to give to any and everything which you may believe, or profess to believe, is a charity, and to any amount you may think proper. You will very easily perceive what a wide door this would open for fraud and corruption and favoritism, on the one hand, and for robbing the people on the other.” Originally published in The Life of Colonel David Crockett, 1884 by Edward Sylvester Ellis.
How easily it is to give that which is “not yours to give.”
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- Jeff Rose advises us on Why You Should Avoid PayDay Cash Loans
- Mike points out Pros and Cons of Reward Credit Cards
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- Dave Ozment clues us in on Views of Money – Part 1
Thanks to Liberty Pen for posting this video.
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Thanks for the mention; greatly appreciated!
Ron, I am flattered x2!!
Thanks for featuring me not once but twice my friend!
Name the article you want me to promote on my site and its DONE!
Thanks!
Dave
RTR
Amen. Boy, have his words proven to be prophetic. I quoted this on my blog about 4 months ago.
I think my parents still have my coonskin cap I got at the Alamo when I was a kid. thanks for the mention!
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