BY RUSSELL TURNER
YOU CAN LEAD A HORSE
Often I have listened to the old timers around my home; while their old sayings were perceived as comical at the time, as I get older I see the wisdom in what they said. One of my favorite sayings said, “You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink”. They understood that there were limits to the control that could be imposed on the horse. In ways we humans are a lot like the horse, the people that have the belief that Socialism and Communism are the answers to our current problems evidently don’t understand the simple lesson about taking a horse to water.
The idea of collectivism just doesn’t work. People, for the most part, work to better their standard of living for themselves and their immediate family, not their neighbors. When a government starts spreading the wealth around by taking earnings from one person and simply giving it to someone else, the person producing the wealth will slow down or stop altogether. As this happens the quality and supply of products will decline until no one has the things they need. Eventually the system will collapse, and as a last resort the government will try to force the producers to supply the products anyway.
I once read about one of the original settlements in this country, the leaders of that group decided to pool all of the food and other necessities that they would need to survive. During the first winter they almost died of starvation. Later the survivors decided to have a system where everyone was responsible for their own needs. Consequently, the following years they flourished. The colonists found that the fear of failure or starvation was a powerful motivation to get serious about good business principles.
Many Americans wonder why the job market is not what it should be, but when you look at the facts the reason becomes more evident. The top 20% of income earners pay 94% of the taxes and create most American jobs. At the same time IRS data shows that almost half of all Americans pay no income taxes at all. In today's federal budget, 70% of all spending now goes to aid for individuals such as housing, food, income, student aid or other forms of welfare. While all of this is going on politicians on the left continue to demonize success while promising something for nothing, at the same time saying that the rich need to pay their fair share. For all of those who believe in something for nothing, they will eventually pay the price because businesses will pass on additional expenses and the consumer will pay for them. Our government can continue to pass more regulations on business, but like the horse they cannot force them to create more jobs.
YOU CAN LEAD A HORSE
Often I have listened to the old timers around my home; while their old sayings were perceived as comical at the time, as I get older I see the wisdom in what they said. One of my favorite sayings said, “You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink”. They understood that there were limits to the control that could be imposed on the horse. In ways we humans are a lot like the horse, the people that have the belief that Socialism and Communism are the answers to our current problems evidently don’t understand the simple lesson about taking a horse to water.
The idea of collectivism just doesn’t work. People, for the most part, work to better their standard of living for themselves and their immediate family, not their neighbors. When a government starts spreading the wealth around by taking earnings from one person and simply giving it to someone else, the person producing the wealth will slow down or stop altogether. As this happens the quality and supply of products will decline until no one has the things they need. Eventually the system will collapse, and as a last resort the government will try to force the producers to supply the products anyway.
I once read about one of the original settlements in this country, the leaders of that group decided to pool all of the food and other necessities that they would need to survive. During the first winter they almost died of starvation. Later the survivors decided to have a system where everyone was responsible for their own needs. Consequently, the following years they flourished. The colonists found that the fear of failure or starvation was a powerful motivation to get serious about good business principles.
Many Americans wonder why the job market is not what it should be, but when you look at the facts the reason becomes more evident. The top 20% of income earners pay 94% of the taxes and create most American jobs. At the same time IRS data shows that almost half of all Americans pay no income taxes at all. In today's federal budget, 70% of all spending now goes to aid for individuals such as housing, food, income, student aid or other forms of welfare. While all of this is going on politicians on the left continue to demonize success while promising something for nothing, at the same time saying that the rich need to pay their fair share. For all of those who believe in something for nothing, they will eventually pay the price because businesses will pass on additional expenses and the consumer will pay for them. Our government can continue to pass more regulations on business, but like the horse they cannot force them to create more jobs.
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