An old friend of mine asked me this question today.  He went to Washington and Lee and is one of the few guys I know who actually paid attention in college and can retain stuff like this.  He asked me if I was familiar with Alexander Tytler’s work, the Cycle of Democracy.  I didn’t.

So I Googled it and here’s what I found.

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government.  It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury.

“From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.

“The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.  These nations have progressed through this sequence:

“From bondage to spiritual faith;
from spiritual faith to great courage;
from courage to liberty;
from liberty to abundance;
from abundance to selfishness;
from selfishness to apathy;
from apathy to dependence;
from dependency back again into bondage.”

Dr. Alexander Tytler, a Scot professor, wrote a scholarly tome, from which this concept comes,  called “The Athenian Republic” which was published shortly before the thirteen American colonies gained independence from Britain.  “Google” him to learn more.

So where do you think we are in this cycle?  More importantly, are we not headed  toward dependency right now?  Dependency on a bigger government, more control, other people to give us a job, other people to be politically active, other people to start a business and give us a job, on other people to transfer their wealth?

The real question is what are you doing about it?  We are working to grow businesses and create wealth.  We want to offer as many resources as possible to help entrepreneurs.  We commit to being politically active.  To fully participating in the game of wealth creation, job creation, and positive growth.

Thanks to Tom, my friend, for bringing this great point of view to the WealthNet Partners community.  We are committed to helping you start, fund, market and grow successful companies.  We can be a wealthy nation again.  We simply need to take the right actions to help small businesses launch and grow.

Please share your comments and thoughts.

Clifford Jones, Founder
WealthNet Partners, LLC
“Discover The Art of Business Development”
Scottsdale, Arizona
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