"The rich are hoarding all the toys," laments the
New York Times:
Imagine a kindergarten with 100 students, lavishly supplied with books, crayons and toys.
Yet you gasp: one avaricious little boy is jealously guarding a mountain of toys for himself. A handful of other children are quietly playing with a few toys each, while 90 of the children are looking on forlornly — empty-handed.
Shouldn't the grownups step in and force the mean little boy to share? Wait a minute -- if the American people are a bunch of babies, who's the grownup in this analogy?
...and where did all the toys come from?
ReplyDeleteFoolish man - they belong to all of us. No less than the trees and the stars, we have a right to be here... and to that little boy's toys, DURNITALL!!!!
ReplyDeleteI think you know they intend to imply "the government" as the grown up.
ReplyDeleteIt's analogies like this that make me want to slap the taste out of their mouths.
"I think you know they intend to imply "the government" as the grown up."
ReplyDeleteThe trickle-down government. I like that one so much, I think I'll use it early and often.
Well, of course, the kindergarten owns the toys. The analogy only works if we're also talking about things owned in common. So, yes, if we find that public goods are being hogged by people -- if someone is trying to turn a public park into their private preserve -- let's have somebody step in and do something about it.
ReplyDeleteFunny - one of the first lessons I taught my boys was not to grab or cover other people's possessions.
ReplyDelete"Funny - one of the first lessons I taught my boys was not to grab or cover other people's possessions."
ReplyDeleteBased on The ∅'s rhetoric and his supporters responses, that seems to be a lesson far too many have missed.
If memory serves, there's some ancient text that cautions against coveting too.