Writes Chris Clark:

I couldn't agree more--it's a travesty that working folk, who by and large must surely give up all hope of retirement, fund the generous 55 and out plans for these leeches.

However, I do take a small degree of satisfaction (very small but a glimmer nonetheless) from conversations like one I heard this morning:

I sometimes take an Amtrak morning train I've come to call--with great debt to you--the Parasite Express. It's a limited stop run between Albany and New York City which leaves later than the trains most commuters who work for a living have to take. On any given morning, perhaps a dozen people on this train have actually paid for their ticket themselves; the rest are bureaucrats whose tickets are provided by the taxpayers of New York State (at a cost greater than that charged on the open market, since as a Parasite Sponsored Enterprise Amtrak can get away with it).Since leeches seldom travel alone, I often get to overhear some wonderfully outrageous conversations. This morning, two senior health planners were pontificating about the once in a lifetime opportunity presented by the "slowdown" for rationalizing under a single entity the hodgepodge of municipal public health projects in this state. They lamented that local jurisdictions have been able to avoid complete control from Albany for so long, but now, since municipalities are broke, they'll have to submit because Albany is going to control all the healthcare stimulus funding coming from DC (listening to this was like hearing a real live Higgs footnote).

Soon their conversation drifted to personal woes. One has been trying for a year to sell his timeshare in Martinique because his daughter's 529 plan is almost broke and if he can't raise the cash to keep her in Cornell he might have to work until he's 60. The other complained that he wasn't able to get enough rental income to cover the expenses on his house in Ft. Myers and the property taxes and insurance just keep going up--plus now he's not even sure he'll be able to afford 25 years of retirement there but he can't be expected to sell at a loss, can he?

Actually, I take no satisfaction from their misery, for the tragedy is that these men will never, ever connect the entirety of their professional lives with their personal woes. They are so oblivious to the evils fostered by their chosen field that when Government-Sponsored Evil befalls them, it is as if some malevolent deity had chosen them at random to receive his wrath. And the greater tragedy is that there are hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, just like these two, who despite their own personal misfortunes will continue to plan and implement this nation's ruination.

Thanks for all you do. My son and I are re-reading Lord of the Rings--LRC is like the Vial of Galadriel for all of us who must slog through Mordor.