{"id":61725,"date":"2025-11-08T10:40:31","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T09:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=61725"},"modified":"2025-11-10T18:49:37","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T17:49:37","slug":"everything-for-free-the-keys-to-a-political-scam-that-continues-to-deceive-many-voters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/11\/08\/everything-for-free-the-keys-to-a-political-scam-that-continues-to-deceive-many-voters\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything for free: the keys to a political scam that continues to deceive many voters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\"Panem et circenses\" (bread and circuses). This was the name of a form of politics created in ancient Rome.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/03\/22\/the-ad-populum-fallacy-and-the-effects-of-using-it-to-defend-political-causes\/\">The 'ad populum' fallacy and the effects of using it to defend political causes<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/07\/05\/leftist-statism-an-effective-disguise-for-being-authoritarian-and-avoiding-reproaches\/\">Leftist statism, an effective disguise for being authoritarian and avoiding reproaches<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>Basically, this policy <strong>consisted of offering free food and circus performances to the common people to win their favor<\/strong>. It was a method used to gain power or simply to distract the masses from real problems, including political corruption. <strong>Several emperors used this method to keep the people happy<\/strong>, especially to win the favor of the less affluent citizens against the influential patricians. <strong>Today, the phrase \"bread and circuses\" is a prime example of demagoguery<\/strong>, the tactic some politicians use to win people's favor through flattery.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The \"bread and circuses\" of our time is called \"everything for free.\"<\/strong> Some politicians promise voters all sorts of free services in exchange for their support. <strong>Basically, this method consist of buying voters' trust with their own money<\/strong>, since most of those who fall for this trick <strong>end up paying for these \"free\" services through tax increases<\/strong>. Given this, how is it possible that so many people continue to fall into this trap?<\/p>\n<p>There are several possible explanations. The main one is that <strong>voters who trust these speeches always think that \"everything for free\" will be paid for by \"the rich,\"<\/strong> a category from which these voters feel excluded and which they hate out of simple envy. <strong>The reality is that raising taxes on the rich has never been enough to fund free services in any country.<\/strong> Dispossessing a small minority never allows you to offer \"everything for free\" to the vast majority of the population.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, both the wealthiest individuals and large corporations often have the means to escape <strong>what these politicians end up creating: a tax hell that affects almost everyone<\/strong>, but especially citizens with fewer resources and small and medium-sized enterprises. In the end, they are always the ones who suffer the most from tax increases, due to <strong>the flight of investors, job losses, and the rising cost of goods<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Another explanation for the success of this political scam is ignorance. <strong>Unfortunately, many people are ignorant of even the most basic economic concepts<\/strong>, and this lack of knowledge is exploited by unscrupulous charlatans who know perfectly well that their promises will damage the country's economy. <strong>These charlatans always look for scapegoats to blame for the ruin they create with their policies:<\/strong> the rich, capitalism, multinational corporations, Jews... <strong>It's a vile and despicable policy that degrades society and democracy<\/strong>, but it's very useful for these charlatans, as it allows them to evade all responsibility for the consequences of their economic policies.<\/p>\n<p>---<\/p>\n<p><small>Image: Grok.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00abPanem et circenses\u00bb (bread and circuses). This was the name of a form of politics created in ancient Rome.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10404],"tags":[17326,10796],"class_list":["post-61725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","tag-roman-empire","tag-socialism"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-12 02:25:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61725\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}