CATCHING PIGS
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, an 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 regime.
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 that it 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, which are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat that free corn again.
You then 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 in America.
The government keeps encouraging us toward greater dependence on foreign suppliers and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, corporate tax cuts, tax exemptions, government funded business bailouts, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, etc. while we continually lose our independence from the rest of the world, just a little at a time.
One should always remember three truths:
1) There is no such thing as a free lunch
2) You can never hire someone to provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it yourself.*
3) In a Free Market Economy, businesses DON'T need bailouts and incentives.
*well, dunno about #2. I've seen some do-it-yourself projects that got pretty expensive when an expert had to be called in as a result, lol.
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, an 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 regime.
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 that it 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, which are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat that free corn again.
You then 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 in America.
The government keeps encouraging us toward greater dependence on foreign suppliers and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, corporate tax cuts, tax exemptions, government funded business bailouts, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, etc. while we continually lose our independence from the rest of the world, just a little at a time.
One should always remember three truths:
1) There is no such thing as a free lunch
2) You can never hire someone to provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it yourself.*
3) In a Free Market Economy, businesses DON'T need bailouts and incentives.
*well, dunno about #2. I've seen some do-it-yourself projects that got pretty expensive when an expert had to be called in as a result, lol.
