A good friend of mine sent this email to me a couple of months back. The author's assertion rankled me no end, so I wrote my agitated response. As I was browsing through my email folder today for a 'lost' customer email, I chanced upon this. As I re-read the email, it triggered the same emotion in me as it did the first time around. I thought I should share this exchange and seek your views. Obituary-Very Interesting read on till the end..... In 1887 Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior: "A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from th