How a country commits suicide

I came across this quote (here) presented in the context of what is going on today in South Africa (about which our Lamestream Media are conspicuously silent), but see if it doesn't "resonate" even for those of us in countries that haven't yet sunk quite so far:

You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom.  What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. 

The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. 

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, My Dear Friend, is about the end of any nation.  You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.

This is almost universally attributed to Adrian Rogers (1931-2005), who was an American, a Southern Baptist pastor who served three terms as president of the Southern Baptist Convention.  Among his many politically conservative positions, he remonstrated Pres. George W. Bush for his "Roadmap to Peace" between Israel and the so-called Palestinians, saying it would be "morally reprehensible" for the United States to be "evenhanded" between "democratic Israel and the terrorist-infested Palestinian infrastructure."

The phrase "You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it" (and perhaps the rest of the quote above) was actually originally stated by Gerald L.K. Smith (a virulent anti-communist who, I'm sad to say, also harbored anti-Jewish and anti-black views) circa 1958.

Thomas Lifson adds: Even very bad people sometimes speak the truth.

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