A Well Armed Lamb

By: Reach For The Sky

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote."

Benjamin Franklin

Picture this: It's the year 2---. Famed (insert popular party/ideology)ist Bob Boberson is running for President of the Earth on a ground breaking election campaign. The centerpiece of his platform is a new economic promise; A massive payment to every civilian making less than the top 10% of income earners. To find the amount to be paid to each person, the amount of total wealth earned that year by the top 10% of civilians would be divided in half and then divided by the number of civilians making less than the top 10%. Isn't it just so strange how those two values line up so perfectly? Better yet, this payment would be made every year.

Obviously a certain %10 percent of the population would be vehemently against this. Something about back-breaking taxes, who knows. "Well of course they're going to be opposed to my plan, it affects them negatively. The fact is, this is what Earth wants. It's time we fueled the retirement dreams of the less fortunate, and stop pampering the greedy rich with taxes they call 'fair'," and it is what Earth wants. Boberson wins by a huge margin against Bill Billerson, who was only for taking a third of the top 10% of income earner's wealth. Bob's plan goes into effect, and 90% of the world is happy. The stock markets crash in a week, executive jobs are completely vacant within two. The world's economy collapses, people starve and freeze to death, etc. etc. Thanks Bob.

That may sound ridiculously pessimistic and Rand-ish, but I'm starting to hear more and more rhetoric like Bob's in the news and politics. There are reasons we made a Constitution that can't be overruled on the whims of whatever political party currently has the majority of Congress under its thumb. One of those reasons is to protect the rights of minorities from mob rule, and as much as some people hate to admit it, the wealthy are a minority. If you liked that quote up their, here's another one by Franky:

"When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic"

Note: Before you get defensive about whatever ideology you think I was bashing up their, remember that I didn't name one. If your party seems like the caricature I made, That's its own fault.

Also, I keep forgetting to mention, you can email me at reach@s-words.org. I can't promise I won't post emails that are sent to me, but I will promise I won't leave your name/email address in there (unless you want me to. If you're that proud of it, let me know in the email.)