Their brains, your cash

When someone tells you that with their brains and your money they'll change the world, hold on tight to your wallet.

You can attribute that quote or something similar to many people. I heard it first from me Grandpa Joe, repeated years later by me Pops. And it's basically why I distrust government and am a political conservative.

It is essentially how the progressives, the government planners, think. With their brains and your cash they'll save the world. This isn't to say that every idea they have is a bad one. Nor is it to say that we don't need government and that governments don't need money. But it is to say that, no matter how good of an idea you think something is, when you intend to spend someone else's money on it you ought to be very certain that your idea is a legitimate public good requiring a public commitment. Otherwise, you're simply a petty tyrant forcing others to fund something merely to suit your whims.

To be sure, conservatives have their pet government schemes. We should treat those with the same skepticism. Yet by and large it is our friends on the left who promote government interference in our lives and demand our - your - cash for it. And they just don't seem to care what your selfish little self thinks about their hands dipping into your wallet.