The $50 dollar lesson

(A story from an American citizen that is worth more than a hundred studies on how to end unemployment and welfare)

Recently, while I was working in the flower beds in the front lawn, my neighbors stopped to chat as they returned home from walking their dog. During our friendly conversation, I asked their little girl what she wanted to be when she grows up. She said she wanted to be the President some day. Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there, so I asked her, “If you were President, what would be the first thing you would do?”

She replied, “I’d give food and houses to all the homeless people.”

Her parents beamed with pride!

“Wow, what a worthy goal!” I said. “But you don’t have to wait until you’re the President to do that!”

“What do you mean?” She asked.

So I told her, “You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and trim my hedge, and I’ll pay you $50. Then you can go over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out and give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house.”

She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked, “Why doesn’t the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?”

I said, “Welcome to the Republican party.”

Her parents have stopped talking to me.

[Shamelessly cribbed from William Gairdner]

The trouble with Canada

In a post yesterday I wrote that there was little appreciation in Canada of the British origins of of our liberty.
I realize I should acknowledge that a few do have such an appreciation - as proved (in spades) by William D. Gairdner in his recent book "The Trouble With Canada - Still!":