Big Lizards:Blog:Entry “Snappy Aphorism Lizipedia Project

« America's Viceroy | Main | Brilliance at Midnight »

July 25, 2010

Snappy Aphorism Lizipedia Project - Share Your Entries!

Hatched by Dafydd

John Hinderaker at Power Line has a great aphorism; he likes to say, "You cannot create wealth by subsidizing the inefficient production of energy."

I'll rewrite that slightly to make it snappier: You can't create wealth by subsidizing inefficiency.

I have my own saying which shares the basic structure of the Hinderaker Hypothesis: You can't create jobs by paying people not to work.

To be specific, the structure of this line of aphorisms is, You can't [achieve some obviously desirable goal] by [obviously inimical action that is nevertheless American policy]. Here are some others in that same format:

You can't create freedom by removing choice.

You can't feed the world by paying people not to grow food.

You can't foster original thought by stifling dissent.

You can't end mandatory government racism by racializing government mandates.

And here are some of a similar but shorter structure, You can't [counterproductive action] your way to [desireable outcome]:

You can't tax your way to prosperity.

You can't surrender your way to victory.

You can't dictate your way to democracy.

So let's play Lizipedia: Please post in comments as many such aphorisms as you can concoct, putting them into one of these two formats. If we get enough, maybe we can compiled them into a long post; then truly, everything you need to know you could learn from Big Lizards!

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, July 25, 2010, at the time of 4:13 PM