Endeth the Empire?

...Uncle Sam is on the verge of paying the City of Los Angeles $30 million to subsidize a ten-year run of Cirque du Soleil.

So it's finally come to pass - America has embarked on the same road down which ancient Rome marched to its ruin: Uncle Sam not only subsidizes bread (by subsidizing wheat production) but now also circuses.

Don Boudreaux - GMU Econ dept. chair

Alex at Marginal Revolution says this is enough to call it the "official" end of us all.

This time the barbarians aren't so much at the gate... they are inside... they are the apathetic, the uninformed, the lazy, the ones who think it's okay for their neighbors to pay for everything, not realizing that their own pockets are in turn being picked. Wake up people, and don't allow your principles, common sense, and personal dignity to be bought off by politicians.

However, as Rome shows the way to ruin, she always lights the way back to prosperity - The Republic.