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When children sit on Santa’s knee asking for gifts, it’s cute. When adults sit on Uncle Sam’s knee asking for handouts, it’s immoral.
Although I often disagree with former Colorado governor Richard Lamm, his point about the difference between Santa and government is brilliant:
Christmas is the time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell government what they want and their kids pay for it.
With a national debt of $17 trillion and counting, American adults are racking up quite a tab for their unsuspecting kids.
Children imagine a magical man living in the North Pole who employs an army of elves to make them presents. Unfortunately, many American adults suppose a magical uncle living in DC who pays the bills for all that America spends. But government isn’t magic; it is force. Every dollar it hands to one person, it takes by force from another person (whether directly via taxation or indirectly via inflation). As the kids will soon discover, American adults have been naughty, not nice.
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Related:
- Individualism vs. Collectivism: Our Future, Our Choice
- No, Mariana, There Is No (State) Santa Claus Driving Technology
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