I was talking with some high school students recently, and one asked me what I had learned in my long life that I could pass on to his generation.
Without hesitation I replied, “There is no such thing as a free lunch. Someone always pays.”
“That’s it?” one of the young men asked. “No free lunch?”
“The “free lunch” reference relates to the fact that nothing is free - nothing. You pay for the lunch, your parents pay for the lunch, your friends pay for the lunch, or God help us, the government pays. The only way the government has to get the money to pay for the lunch is taxation, then everyone pays.”
“Then you are against free college tuition?” the same young man asked.
“Absolutely because nothing is free. Do you think that the professors are going to work for free? Someone or some entity has to pay their salary. According to “Crazy” Bernie Sanders, the government is going to pick up the tab.”
Speaking of Bernie, he has jumped into the presidential race, and believe me, he is crazier than ever.
His first statement was, “Everyone’s bank account should be equal.”
What exactly does that mean, and is this even a rational statement?
Should my bank account be equal to President Trump’s, for example? If my bank account is going to be worth $10 billion, then we can make a deal.
But that is not what “Crazy” Bernie means.
He means that all the money from successful people is going to be confiscated, and the money is going to be re-distributed by Uncle Sam.
The rich will no longer be rich, and after a few months, the government will have to look for other sources of funding.
Where is the money? Well, it’s in the middle class where most of us live.
Soon your bank account will be drained because you will have to pay the high taxes that Bernie demands to give us free college tuition and , don’t forget, government-run healthcare. Soak the rich! Take their money!
They have too much anyway.
The facts always get in the way of socialist reasoning. According to economists who have looked at this issue, the government could confiscate every dime that the rich have, and it would only be enough to run the government for about two months.
But the damage would have been done. America’s economy would be fatally wounded. The upside is that all of our bank accounts would be equal.
But I am worried about America. Kamala Harris, another candidate for president, openly bragged about smoking “weed” in college.
She went on to say that “weed” brought happiness to lots of people. This type thinking is ignorance on a grand scale.
Marijuana is still against federal law, yet state after state is legalizing it. Colorado is a prime example followed by California.
John Boehner, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, is even getting in on the action by promoting marijuana stocks.
The medical people have known for a long time that marijuana is bad news for the human being.
“Cannabis users today are consuming a drug that is far more potent than ever before. Emergency room physicians in states like Colorado have become experts on dealing with cannabis-induced psychosis.”
But it gets worse.
“Research from Finland and Denmark, two countries that track mental illness, shows a significant increase in psychosis since 2000, following an increase in cannabis use.” The study also shows that “marijuana (cannabis) is a significant risk factor for violence.”
But all of this goes back to the fact that there is no such thing as a free lunch.
Someone pays the bill. Kamala Harris says that cannabis brings happiness to the user.
The facts are that the prolonged use of marijuana can bring about mental illness. The user pays, his or her family pays, and society pays.
As a society, we must get over the “free lunch” syndrome and face the cold hard fact that there is no such thing, or we can follow “Crazy” Bernie’s suggestion and make everyone’s bank account equal. Hello, Venezuela.
