“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse 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, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.” Link.
Have we reached that point in the history of this great democracy?
Update: Oops! The author of that quote was not Tocqueville. Sorry. There seems to be a question of who said it. It has been attributed to Tocqueville, Alexander Fraser Tytler, and others. But this research by Loren Collins, concluding that the quote is a composite of statements from various sources, seems credible.
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