The Lessons of History .... Will We Ever Learn?

To paraphrase what former President Harry Truman said, the only thing new in the world is the history we haven't yet learned.


In that regard, a childhood friend of mind recently sent along the following quote by Cicero which was made almost twenty one hundred years ago:


"The Budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome will become bankrupt. People must again learn to work instead of living on public assistance."

Cicero 55 BC

Evidently we've learned nothing at all over the past 2,069 years."

Summing Up

Maybe someday we'll learn the lessons of history, but then again, probably not.

There is no such thing as a free lunch or a government that can ever hope to pay for all the entitlement promises we have made to ourselves.

Nevertheless, we continue to believe as well in an ethos of individual responsibility and self-reliance accompanied by a growing and prosperous debt free economy.

In other words, we just keep saying one thing and doing another.

We keep trying to do the impossible.

That's my take.

Thanks. Bob.