Five rules of economics

I didn't write the following. I got it in an email. If anyone knows who the writer is, let me know, either to credit them or to take it down if they wish.

These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read. This is one paragraph that should be in every book in every school room in every city in every state in our great Union ... Our educators should make alesson plan on this one statement and instill these words in the minds of all students.

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation..

5. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.