A forecast of the future of the US?

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 08:54:36 -0400
> From: Ted Kircher <tkircher () comcast net>
> Subject: A forecast of the future of the US?
> To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
>
>
> This might be of interest to IP.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> A warning from Scots Historian Professor Alexander Tyler, circa 1787, Re: 
> The Fall of the Athenian Republic.
>
> "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only 
> exist until the voters discover
> that they can vote themselves largesse (generous gifts) from the public 
> treasury.  From that moment on,
> the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits 
> from the public treasury, with the
> result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, (which 
> is) always followed by a dictatorship."
>
> "The average age of the world's greatest civilization has been  two 
> hundred years. These nations have progressed
> through this sequence. From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual 
> faith to great courage; from courage to liberty;
> from liberty to abundance, from abundance to complacency; from complacency 
> to apathy, from apathy to dependence,
> from dependence back into bondage."

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