The almost-lost cause of honesty

I love The Economist, if only for thier intelectual honesty. Only in The Economist can one read lines like the one below....

"One reason why liberals (economic) have been so muted since Brazil became a democracy again is that voting in elections is compulsory. This means that a large number of poor voters, who pay little tax but benefit from government welfare spending, help to push the parties in the direction of a bigger state. If the same system were to be applied to America, the Democrats might well enjoy a permanent majority."

The subtitle to this article is "The almost-lost cause of freedom". Because in my world freedom means wishing poor people would go away so that we can better promote buisness interests and economic liberalism.