Quote of the Day

…If revenues are available, one should not do what popular leaders today do—make a free distribution of the surplus. (When people get it, they want the same again: this sort of assistance to the poor is like the proverbial jug with a hole in it.) [But] the duty of the true democrat is to see that the population is not destitute; for destitution is a cause of a corrupt democracy.

Every effort therefore must be made to perpetuate prosperity. And, since that is to the advantage of the rich as well as the poor, all that accrues from the revenues should be collected in a single fund and distributed in block grants to those in need, if possible in lump sums large enough for the acquisition of a small piece of land, but if not, then enough to start a business, or work in agriculture.

—Aristotle, The Politics Book VI, Ch. V, Penguin edition