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“The war against illegal plunder has been fought since the beginning of the world. But how is… legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime. Then abolish this law without delay … If such a law is not abolished immediately it will spread, multiply and develop into a system.”
–Fredrick Bastiat, 1850 in The Law

Red Planet Cartoons has a sad and somber story to tell with the cartoon above. It has to do with how human nature and republics work. The story has never yet had a happy ending.

It’s the rare human that isn’t interested in getting something-for-nothing. However, most adults used to realize that this isn’t possible; at least as a large-scale, long-term proposition. Anyone who thinks differently–well, those people are called “the Democrat Party”.

That’s sad.

But, there is an increasing number of Republicans in Congress willing to join in on the legal robbery of private property these days. These are the same people who coined the phrase, “compassionate conservatism”.

That’s tragic.

RPC quotes Michelle Obama next:

“The truth is, in order to get things like universal health care and a revamped education system, then someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so that someone else can have more.”

“Someone has to give up a piece of their pie.”

Think about that for just a moment.

One has to wonder if Michelle Obama would be willing to give up her pie if it suddenly got chopped to 1/161st of it’s present size. That’s what it would take for the Obamas to enjoy the same income as the average American. The Obama income for 2007: $4.2 million.

The average household income for a U.S. family was $26,036 in 2006, or 1/161st of what Michelle O’s household hauled in. Michelle O. would have to lose a BIG piece of her pie before such mundane concerns as taxes bother her.

But–and Red Planet Cartoons had to have this firmly in mind before starting the first sketch on this subject–Michelle Obama is not really talking about pies at all. She’s talking about a completely different foodstuff altogether: gravy.

Michelle O and her husband are talking about the gravy train.

The Obamas are trying to buy votes by promising people something-for-nothing: “free” healthcare. But the Obamas–and the Clinton and John Edwards and many in the earmarking, pork-stuffing, vote-buying Congress–know that healthcare can’t be made free. Somebody has to pay for it.

Just like somebody has to pay for Social Security (which bought votes in the 1930s), Medicare and Medicaid (which bought votes in the 1960s) and prescription drug benefits (which attempted to buy votes this decade).

And so, someone is paying for it: we all are–or at least the working readers are. Mark your children down as paying, also. Maybe not your grandchildren, though. By that time, the whole house of cards will likely have crashed and a system of barter will be the order of the day.

Red Planet Cartoons knows: One sure sign of the end of a republic–this one included–is when politicians, and the people they represent, get hooked on the idea of “legal plunder”.

People work harder or longer than necessary to better provide for themselves and their families. When the government takes more, then the person is working harder for other people he does not know.

It was a popular saying in the U.S.S.R. that “the government pretends to pay us and we pretend to work.”

That’s one reason that Communism failed. It’s also the reason that republics fail: part of the people discover that they can vote themselves goodies and have other people pay for them.

Just ask the Greeks.

Or the Romans.

Or the British.

And coming soon–if the present attitudes and policies don’t change–to a failed republic near you: the U.S.A.

[NOTE: And don't forget to check out Red Planet Cartoons: the folks who got this whole discussion started!]

by Mondoreb
images: DBKP; Red Planet Cartoons
Sources:
* Legal Plunder