A conservative sees a man drowning fifty feet from shore. The conservative
throws the man a rope 25 feet long and tells the man to start swimming, all
the while wondering where he is going to send the bill for the 25 feet of
rope used in this effort. Just down the beach, a liberal sees a man
drowning fifty feet from shore. The liberal borrows 50 feet of rope from a
neighbor and throws this to the drowning man. He does not hold on to the
end of the rope, since he is busily looking for someone else from whom he
may borrow another fifty feet of rope, just to make sure that man has
enough. The swimmer can hardly afford the conservative and can hardly
survive the liberal.
