Opinion: ‘A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you've got’

Lars Larson
The Northwest Nonsense

The riots and violence in France seem like a great warning to Americans (and those of us here in the Northwest).

Lars Larson

After all, we’re told that the chaos comes from people unhappy with their circumstances.

France has a guaranteed 35-hour work week, paid family leave and universal health care. Citizens enjoy subsidized child care, generous housing subsidies, and heavily subsidized college.

In other words, France spends most of its government budget providing goodies for citizens … exactly the same policies that the Democrats propose for Americans.

And therein lies the danger: when you promise everything to everyone at no cost, then it's easy for folks to get dissatisfied when anything falls short.

If you, instead, guarantee equal opportunity to citizens and they know it's up to them to make something of it, if people aren’t happy with the results, they know who has to work harder.

I’m told the polls show socialism has amazingly high popularity.

It’s tough to top Santa Claus.

Forty-three years ago, Ronald Reagan told folks “a government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you've got."

He’s still right today.