See ours is not the first by George good government to arise on the world stage, there have been several
Rome, Spain, and Greece, and China, and each enjoyed about a hundred and fifty years at its zenith
And that’s just about our time in the new world
And then each decayed away
Not one of them was ever destroyed by anybody else’s marching legions
Each rotted away morally, socially, culturally, economically simultaneously
You know one of the most cruel paradoxes’ of history is this

[Chorus]
Because each was a good government it bore bountiful fruit and when it bore bountiful fruit the people got fat
And when they got fat they got lazy, when they got lazy they began to want to absolve themselves of personal responsibility and turn over to government to do for them things which traditionally they had been doing for themselves

At first there appears to be nothing wrong asking government to perform some extra service for you
But if you ask government for extra services government, in order to perform its increasing function, has to get bigger, right?
And as government gets bigger, in order to support its increasing size it has to, what?
Tax the individual more, so the individual gets littler
And to collect the increased taxes requires more tax collectors so the government gets bigger and in order to pay the additional tax collectors, it has to tax the individual more so the government gets bigger and the individual get littler and the government gets bigger and the individual gets littler, until the government is all powerful and the individual is hardly anything at all

[Chorus]
Good government it bore bountiful fruit and when it bore bountiful fruit the people got fat
And when they got fat they got lazy, when they got lazy they began to want to absolve themselves of personal responsibility and turn over to government to do for them things which traditionally they had been doing for themselves

Some believe that the need is for a vigorous, strong man
To rise on the scene
To regulate and regiment the affairs of men (REGULATORS!)
Yet, history tells us there have been several such
Once upon a time there was a nation great and powerful and good
Few were suffering from the aftermath of war, from a depression
And then came upon the scene a leader, an idealist, self confident, intolerant to criticism
A wise lady limited his early activities to combating the financial
Depression, nobody could argue with that, but in a while he began to regulate business and establish new rules to govern commerce and finance
Some of them in diametrical disagreement with the God-Made laws of supply and demand, but anybody who disagreed with those new rules was promptly fired
The new leader saw that under the old system of free enterprise landlords prospered, so he levied new taxes to take away their profits and destroy what he called then “Monopoly of Capital”
To please laborers, he controlled prices
To win the favor of the farmers, he
Gave them loans and subsidies
The National Debt mounted, alarmingly
Whenever anybody tried to tell him “that governments, even as people, can go broke, when they spend beyond their incomes”, he said “They just didn’t understand deficit finance.”
Well, what do you say? Did he build on rock or on sand? I say on sand
For you see this was the story of Emperor Tsu Tong Phao who led China to its doom more than a Thousand Years Ago
[Chorus]
Because each was a good government it bore bountiful fruit and when it bore bountiful fruit the people got fat
And when they got fat they got lazy, and when they got lazy they began to want to absolve themselves of personal responsibility and turn over to government to do for them things which traditionally they had been doing for themselves

[Chorus - Akira The Don]
Because each was a good government it bore bountiful fruit and when it bore bountiful fruit the people got fat
And when they got fat they got lazy, and when they got lazy they began to want to absolve themselves of personal responsibility and turn over to government to do for them things which traditionally they had been doing for themselves

I am satisfied with all my heart that if Uncle Sam ever does get whipped, here too, it will have been an Inside Job
It was internal decay, it was not external attack that destroyed the Roman Empire
Starting about 146 B.C. internal conditions in Rome were characterized by a welter of class wars and conflicts, street brawls, corrupt governors, lack of personal integrity and moral responsibility
Street brawls, corrupt governors, lack of personal integrity and moral responsibility
Street brawls, corrupt governors, lack of personal integrity and moral responsibility
Street brawls, corrupt governors, lack of personal integrity and moral responsibility
Street brawls, corrupt governors, lack of personal integrity and moral responsibility
Street brawls, corrupt governors, lack of personal integrity and moral responsibility