February 03, 2008

No Such Thing As A Free Lunch

There was a Chemistry professor in a large college that had some exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab, the Prof noticed one young man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back, and stretching as if his back hurt.

The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new communist government.

In the midst of his story, he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked, ' Do you know how to catch wild pigs?'

The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line. The young man said this was no joke.

"You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it, and begin to come every day to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again, and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that, and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side. The pigs, who are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat, and you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd.

Suddenly, the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity."

The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening to America. The government keeps pushing us toward Communism/Socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops(CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs, free medical, etc., while we continually lose our freedoms - just a little at a time.


I don't know about you, but just reading these words gives me an unconfortable feeling, because as bad as it is now, it is getting worse, and who knows what the coming election will bring? No matter how hard I try, or how positive I try to be, I just cannot believe in the great change that the current presidential candidates, and those endorsing them, are trying to convince us is possible if only he or she is elected. All I can feel--with all that they are promising-- is that any change is going to be for the worse rather than for the better. Maybe, it's because I'm just a pessimist, always expecting the worst--but maybe it is a 'gut-feeling' which is very seldom ever wrong. None of the presidential candidates are miracle workers--this much I know for sure.

Maybe we would all do well to remember that there really is no such thing as a free lunch.

A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have.

~Thomas Jefferson

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

It has always been my fear as Americans get more and more dependent on the federal government that we would one day wake up to find our freedoms taken away. Having been raised by parents who risked everything including their lives to escape a communist regime and come to America this becomes are really personal issue. The similarities between our nation and the Roman Empire is scary. As I look at the events that led to the ultimate fall of the Romans, I can't help but shudder when I realize how close we must be to our own downfall unless the trends are turned. Like you, I don't think any of these candidates or their parties are willing and/or able to do what it's going to take.

k said...

hi Jan! I hope you're feeling better. There's a nasty bug going around. I thought I caught something else because of working without my mask, but the doc thinks it's just the same upper and lower respiratory infection that's making the rounds down here. Granny j caught something like it, and kat in ga, and some others too. ICKY fevers and chills with it, too. Very erky, all around.

I posted the comment below on your older post about Russel Means & co., but I'm reproducing it here too, in case anyone else might like to read some of these.

If you're still feeling under the weather...well, if you'd like any new reading material, here you go.
************
Here are three popular Indian newspapers I've read in the past.

http://www.indiancountry.com/

http://www.nativetimes.com/

http://www.cherokeeobserver.org/


Here are sites showing lists of various Indian newspapers and/or websites.

http://www.ausbcomp.com/Redman/printpubs.htm

http://www.public.iastate.edu/~savega/amer_ind.htm

http://library.nsuok.edu/newspapers/indian.html

http://www.indiancircle.com/papers.shtml

NICKEL said...

Rocky is so right. To see our future, just read the story of Rome. So Sad.

Big Daddy Jew said...

Great post, Jan. Very sobering when you consider this was said by Thomas Jefferson so long ago!

Dazd said...

Jan,

Welcome back! I received your email and when I get a moment I'll reply.

Get better soon!

Dazd

Jan said...

rockny..I know, it is scary, and I think about it a lot.

Jan said...

k..hi, there!

Yes, I'm feeling much better, thank you!

Thanks for all the info..I'll check it out. :)

Jan said...

nickel..it is very sad, isn't it?

Thanks for dropping by, and I hope your birthday was a happy one! :)

Jan said...

Big DJ..very sobering, indeed, and you'd think by now, we would have heeded the words.

Thank you for dropping by, and please feel welcome, anytime! :)

Jan said...

Big DJ..very sobering, indeed, and you'd think by now, we would have heeded the words.

Thank you for dropping by, and please feel welcome, anytime! :)

Jan said...

dazd..thanks!

Don't worry, it took me a long time to answer yours, I'm sure..but most of the past few days are kinda foggy! :)

Linda G. said...

Hurrah! You're back, and with another thought provoking post!
I agree with all that's been said here. We are in danger of losing it all by being too willing to look for the free and easy way.
The pig story is really an appropriate analogy for what is alreadying happening in our country.

Jan said...

She..thanks!

It certainly is already happening in our country...sad to say.