Quote of the Day:

[theweaselking]

"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
- President Dwight Eisenhower, Nov., 8, 1954.

Comments

[torrain.livejournal.com]

Ah, of course. Because America is the land of opportunity, where anyone can put down a thirty thousand dollar[1] bet in a poker game and win five thousand acres of oil field that just happen to pay out. Only people who are stupid, lazy, or just bad enough to be born into circumstances that mean they don't have that kind of money would ever need help, and they don't deserve it!

Oh, sorry. That's the cry of the modern Texas oil barons, isn't it...
---
[1] ~$300,000 today.

[culfinriel.livejournal.com]

hee!

[publius1.livejournal.com]

Their numbers are no longer negligible, and either the stupid is contagious or they're not as dumb as we wish they were. Or maybe a little of both.