There is an Aesop’s Fable about a horse, a donkey and a burdensome load.

The donkey is carrying the whole load and asks the horse to help by carrying some of the load because he is getting weary and faint. The horse refuses to help and the donkey dies. The owner then makes the horse pick up and carry the whole load. Then the horse thinks to himself that maybe he would have been better off in the long run if he helped carry some of the donkey’s burden.

The moral of the story provides an apt lesson for many Americans who want someone else to carry all their burdens. It is always easier to let someone else do the work and just collect Food Stamps, or disability payments or unemployment. Only this time, the “someone else” is your rich Uncle Sam, who is already going broke carrying everybody else’s burdens.

Richard Grover, Mason Township