John’s Blog

We have heard over and over that there is no such thing as a ‘free lunch’. We, as a people, are losing our ability to survive on our own. We are all expecting the governments-local, state and federal to supply us with everything to make our lives comfortable. We are becoming dependent on someone else to provide us with all the perceived necessities to make our lives comfortable. The point here is should we expect life to be ‘comfortable’ or should we be satisfied with life being ‘tolerable’? There is a wide range between the two and there is a price to be paid for being too comfortable.

The story below was sent to me over the Internet. I have no idea who the author is and have no way of knowing whether the story is true or not so consider it a parable.

“There was a Chemistry professor in a large college that had a few exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab, the Professor noticed one exchange student who kept rubbing his back and stretching as if his back hurt. The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country’s government and install a new communist government. In the midst of his story, he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked, “Do you know how to catch wild pigs?” The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line. The young man said this was no joke. “You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come everyday to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up the second side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side. The pigs, who are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat, you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd. Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves and so they accept their captivity. The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening to America. The government keeps pushing us toward Communism/socialism and keeps spreading the free corn in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs, etc. While we continually lose our freedoms- just a little at a time. If you see that all of this wonderful government “help” is a problem confronting the future of democracy in America, you might want to send this on to your friends. If you think the free ride is essential to your way of life then you will probably delete this email, but God help you when the gate slams shut!”

That story illustrates what can happen to not just pigs but to any society that becomes too dependent on someone other than themselves. We must eventually pay for the ‘free lunch’. We eventually lose our freedom of choice. If we expect our lives to become too comfortable and too safe the price that we will have to pay is a loss of freedom. Guard rails, fences, paved paths and smooth roads all make us safer but also diminish the excitement of living. We must make rational decisions about how much we are willing to give up for comfort and security. The “Law of Diminishing Returns” must always be considered whenever we undertake any project. How much time, and therefore money, is involved in making the shelf board smoother or leveling our lawns?