The first lesson of economics is scarcity. The first rule of politics is ignoring the first rule of economics. Thomas Sowell (quote approximate).

He also said that when people demand the impossible, only liars can satisfy them. The logical corrolary of course is that stupid and decadent people more or less demand to be lied to. The irony in our own time is that most of the time the lies are obvious but most people in this country STILL can't figure them out. Figuring THAT fact out is a preoccupation of my own.