Real Estate, local information: Kerby's Point of View

I have seen these truths lived out time after time. So very simple yet those that fall into the opposite side of these truths believe statements like this to be absurd and foolish.

October 11, 2012

What You Cannot Do
by Kerby Anderson

Commentary Thumbnail During this campaign we are hearing about what Congress can and cannot do. Perhaps you have seen the list created years ago of the ten “you cannots.” If you have not seen them, here they are:

1. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. 2. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. 3. You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich. 4. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. 5. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man’s initiative and independence. 6. You cannot help small men by tearing down big men. 7. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. 8. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income. 9. You cannot establish security on borrowed money. 10. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they will not do for themselves.

Over the years they have been incorrectly attributed to Abraham Lincoln. Actually they were written in 1916 by the Reverend William Boetcker, a Presbyterian clergyman and pamphlet writer. The confusion stemmed from a pamphlet published in 1942 entitled “Lincoln on Limitations.” The pamphlet had a Lincoln quote on one side and these statements by the pastor on the other side. Although the pastor was given credit on the pamphlet, many reading the pamphlet wrongly assumed that all of the statements were by Lincoln.

Sometimes people confuse it with a statement by the late Adrian Rogers. “You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. . . . You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”

There is wisdom in both of these pastors’ sayings. We live in a world today that really believes we can help one part of society by harming another part of society. We need to listen to these wise pastors before we enact more legislation that attempts to help some by harming others. I’m Kerby Anderson, and that’s my point of view.

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