The Ten Cannots

[Liberty1]

I found this today, originally written in 1916 by a Presbyterian minister. A lot of wisdom in these words.

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
You cannot build character and courage by destroying men’s initiative and independence.
And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves.

[Crackpot]

I bet there's a snopes article attached to that.

[Liberty1]

Apparently you are correct, except it has to do with attributing this to Abraham Lincoln

William John Henry Boetcker (1873–1962) was an American religious leader and influential public speaker.

Born in Hamburg, Germany, he was ordained a Presbyterian minister soon after his arrival in the United States as a young adult. Rev. Boetcker was ordained in Brooklyn, New York.

He quickly gained attention as an eloquent motivational speaker, and is often regarded today as the forerunner of such contemporary "success coaches" as Anthony Robbins.

Rev. Boetcker is perhaps best remembered for his authorship of a pamphlet entitled The Ten Cannots that emphasizes freedom and responsibility of the individual on himself. Originally published in 1916, it is often misattributed to Abraham Lincoln. The error apparently stems from a leaflet printed in 1942 by a conservative political organization called the Committee for Constitutional Government. The leaflet bore the title "Lincoln on Limitations" and contained some genuine Lincoln quotations on one side and the "Ten Cannots" on the other, with the attributions switched. The genuine Lincoln quotations may have been from an address on March 21, 1864 in which Lincoln said "Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another; but let him labor diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built."

[rubato]

What the 20th century showed us by experiment is that you can only make more prosperous country with great individual liberty if you have an extensive system of social welfare and regulation significantly redistributing income from the top groups.

The economic collapse brought about by unregulated capitalism created totalitarian fascism and totalitarian communism.

yrs,
rubato

[Liberty1]

Which has what exactly to do with the subject and truth of this thread.

[Lord Jim]

It might not be a coincidence that 1916 was just 3 years after the 16th Amendment making the income tax Constitutional was ratified...

[rubato]

You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. (Except when economic uncertainty reduces spending below normal levels and deepens a recession)

You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. (Except when the strong got that way by changing the laws to make the weak weaker and the poor, poorer)

You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.(Except when "big men" are abusing their greater power by exploiting "little men". Then it is essential.)

You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.(Actually, you have to. The 8-hour work day. OSHA. minimum wage. unions. all helped working people by imposing limits on what employers could do)

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. (You cannot help the poor w/o limiting the ability of the rich to take everything, like the 1% who got 93% of all additional income in 2010)

You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money. (Except in a time of crisis. To pay for infrastructure improvements. To pay for education and health care)

You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. (you cannot further the brotherhood of man by enacting laws with rape the poor and enrich the wealthy and then whining that when someone points this out it is 'class hatred' while the ongoing economic rape is not)

You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn. (Except in a time of crisis. To pay for infrastructure improvements. To pay for education and health care)

You cannot build character and courage by destroying men’s initiative and independence. (You cannot destroy the initiative of the bottom 40% of the population by reducing their incomes and and making them live 1 paycheck from homelessness and then whine that someone making $1,000,000 with be 'discouraged' if he pays $10,000 more in taxes)

And you cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they can and should do for themselves. (You can help the rich by borrowing $200B a year from everyone else as the Republican party proved in 2001-2008; but it leads to 8 years of lower incomes for 80% of the population followed by catastrophic economic collapse)

[dgs49]

Has anyone noticed that rubato is an idiot?

Jimmy, have you ever researched the ratification of the 16th Amendment? It makes for interesting discussion.

And then again, commitments (to pay taxes) that are procured by fraud are not generally binding.

[Gob]

Has anyone noticed that rubato is an idiot?

How could anyone not?

[rubato]

Trolls, killing discourse one post at a time.




yrs,
rubato

[dales]

Has anyone noticed that rubato is an idiot?

Name-calling is what one resorts to when one is left without anything of substance to post.

[Lord Jim]

Name-calling is what one resorts to when one is left without anything of substance to post.

I disagree Dale...

It's entirely possible to name call and post substantive comments...

It just takes a little multi-tasking ability...

Of course questions that are purely rhetorical, like "has anyone noticed rubato is an idiot?" or "has anyone noticed that the sky is blue?"

Don't necessarily add much...

[Sue U]

rubato made some good points. Simply because you don't like the source doesn't mean they aren't worthy of discussion.

Personally, I find the "Ten Cannots" mostly idiotic, nonsensical at best, and actually harmful if truly viewed as "commandments." Simplistic bromides for the simple-minded.

[Rick]

Sue, we don't allow conjugating around here, move along...

[dales]

Jim...

You're asking me to "multi-task"?

Walking and chewing gum are the limit to my abilities in this regard.

[dales]

Sue, we don't allow conjugating around here, move along...

Are conjugal visits ,ok?

[Sean]

You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.

Batman must be stopped!

[Econoline]

rubato made some good points. Simply because you don't like the source doesn't mean they aren't worthy of discussion.

Personally, I find the "Ten Cannots" mostly idiotic, nonsensical at best, and actually harmful if truly viewed as "commandments." Simplistic bromides for the simple-minded.

I notice that rubato--regardless of what anyone here thinks of him--was the only one who bothered to offer a point-by-point response to the opening post.

[dales]

That is exactly why I took such offense at dgs49's response.

[Long Run]

When I saw the post, I thought it was typo and I would be reading about

Neil Young
Shania Twain
Bobby Orr
Ben Johnson
William Shatner
et al