"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."1
"You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
You cannot build character and courage by destroying men's
initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they
can and should do for themselves."2
1. Dr. Adrian Rogers
2. Often credited to Abraham Lincoln but more likely
by the Rev. William John Henry Boetcker
according to an article on Snopes.com.
2 comments:
This is very off topic, but I wanted to wish you a very Happy Mother's Day!
“You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”
Then maybe it is time to divide the concept of “wealth” itself, it is a socially constructed concept; the categorizations of “wealthy” and “poor”, the items used to define the rich as what they have and what the poor lack (Such as money), and the defining of what these classes do as work vs not-work as indicators as “class” only have meaning because we collectively allow them to. The sooner we realize this and become the constructors instead of the constructed, the better.
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