Sanders: Who pays for Bernie's gifts?

I love Bernie Sanders’ inner Teddy Roosevelt: breaking up monopolies, ridding government of corporate control, public financing of elections. I’m not so sold on Bernie’s other Roosevelt, his inner FDR.

We often elect politicians who promise to give us free stuff. Yet life’s wheel turns by sacrifice. I must give to receive.

It’s thermodynamics: To take energy out of a system you must put energy in. Otherwise, it dies. “Energy” comes from the Greek energos, meaning work.

Nothing is free. Beware of fiscal entropy, heat-death of the economy: the equal redistribution of energy or money.

Even Marxism is thermodynamic. Marx never said, “Get free stuff.” He envisioned a dynamic cooperative: “To each according to their need, from each according to their ability.” This is Buddha’s Dharma Wheel of sacrifice, not socialism’s entitlement program.

Likewise, early Christians lived collectively, teaching, “He who does not work shall not eat.” Neither liberal nor conservative, this is basic science.

Many can’t wait to get the free stuff Sanders wants to give away. I have yet to hear one person say, “Can’t wait to work a 10-hour day, sacrificing 80 percent in taxes, to pay for Bernie’s programs.”

This story was originally published January 20, 2016 at 12:20 PM with the headline "Sanders: Who pays for Bernie's gifts?."