"The 8th Habit".

Nearly all of us are familiar with the phrase, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." My father, who was a lifelong registered Democrat, said the Democrats will give you a fish. Republicans say they'll teach you to fish for yourself. I wanted to be a Republican. Then my father said that the truth is, Republicans won't teach you to fish. Once they find an abundant fishing hole, they hide it so no one else can find it. Then they'll sell you the fish and make themselves rich.

So who doesn't want to be rich? Even so I didn't want to be greedy or hide the keys to the kingdom from anyone. At least I'd get a fish for nothing from the Democrats if I got hungry. When I turned 18, I registered Independent.

But there's no such thing as a free fish.

Everyone pays taxes for those government-dole fish. Those dependent on those free fish are not learning how to fish for themselves. The longer they get something at someone else's expense, the less incentive they have for finding their own fishing hole. There are plenty of abundant fishing holes, but you can't find them if you don't bother to look.

The more of our earnings taken in taxes, the less we have available for saving, investing and business building. Let's not forget the costs of maintaining the bureaucracy and administration for government-dole fish. Forms for determining eligibility. Supervisors for approving the forms. Clerks for filing the forms. Auditors for reviewing the forms. Inspectors to make sure the forms are filed in good order. Warehouses for ancient forms. Subcontractors for procuring the fish. Drivers for delivering the fish. Code enforcement to chase down fish malingerers. Committees to determine the effectiveness of the free fish program. The IRS to make sure that the nation's independent fishers are coughing up their "fair" share. This is silly make work that doesn't contribute to the economy [9].

All this to discourage anyone from fishing for themselves. To keep the poor poor, because there's big tax revenue [10] [11] in it.

All this to say that I'm Libertarian now.

[1] Bill Moyers Journal on PBS online

[2] Rene Des Cartes Discourse on the Method Ch. 3

[3] Brihadaranyaka Upanishad IV.4.5

[4] Quote widely attributed to Ben Franklin, though not confirmed. 10 min 37 sec video on the spectrum of government power

[5] William Shakespeare, "As You Like It"

[6] Eckhart Tolle "A New Earth" book and online course on Oprah

[7] Federal Union http://www.federalunion.org.uk /federalism/index.shtml

Federal Union http://dictionary.reference.co m/browse/federal

[8] Incorporating http://dictionary.reference.co m/browse/incorporating

[9] Henry Hazlitt Economics in One Lesson education series on Campaign for Liberty

[10] International Society for Individual Liberty educational pamphlet

[11] Aaron Russo and the taxes we pay

(c) 2009 all rights reserved without prejudice pursuant to UCC 1-308

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