Some anti-tax folks want to make it harder for the Legislature (or pretty much anyone) to raise taxes or fees on anything, so circulate an initiative to do exactly that -- the Taxpayer Protection and Government Accountability Act (the TPA). The initiative would amend the California Constitution to require that basically any new taxes or fees obtain both a two-thirds vote in both houses of the Legislature as well as approval by the voters in a referendum. The TPA contains a plethora of other provisions as well, all designed to cover pretty much any possible way a statute (or law, or regulation, or municipal act, or whatever) could raise revenue or impose costs. They get more than enough signatures on the initiative proposal, so it's scheduled to go to the voters in November.
But the California Supreme Court, in a rare pre-election review, strikes down the thing and removes it from the ballot, unanimously holding that the scope of the initiative is so radical and wide-ranging that it constitutes an impermissible "revision" of the California Constitution rather than a mere amendment. To reiterate: unanimously.
The proponents of the TPA could have accomplished a lot of their objectives by narrowing the thing to particular subjects or, potentially, by getting multiple different -- narrower -- initiatives qualified for the ballot. But by trying to do the whole thing at once, they end up getting nothing.
Hence the whole "pigs get fed, hogs get slaughtered" analogy.
Because, today, the initiative gets slaughtered.
I did, however, want to make one final point. Just about the saying itself. (Which is sometimes rendered as "Pigs get fed [rather than "fat"], hogs get slaughtered.")
I've mentioned this saying -- which I grew up hearing in Virginia many, many times -- in several prior posts. Its meaning is fairly clear, and is basically a more graphic equivalent of "Don't be greedy."
But in my heart of hearts, I've never really understood it.
As far as I know, hogs are pigs. It's just another name for the same thing. So if you're a pig, you're also a hog; you can't choose choose to be one or the other. So what's the point of the saying; there's actually no choice involved. (This is also, I think, why I often forget which one comes first; whether it's pigs that get fed or hogs that get fed. 'Cause they're the same thing.)
I understand that, colloquially, "hogs" are thought of as fatter. Though why I don't know. Plus, being a pig itself carries the whole "greedy" connotation; as in "Don't be a pig," or being "piggish". This is also why, again, I sometimes think the phrase begins with hogs and ends with pigs getting slaughtered. It's confusing. Especially, I might think, for non-English speakers, or someone hearing the phrase for the first time. Like: What?! What the hell are you saying?
My final point on the subject is that it's my firm belief that both pigs and hogs end up . . . slaughtered, right? No one raises pigs for their milk or something like that. Both are raised to be killed. Which also means hogs get fed too; otherwise, they wouldn't get fat in the first place.
So, really, the phrase should be: "Pigs and hogs both get fed, and both get slaughtered." Which sort of means to me that you might as well go for it and have a good time in the process. Which in turn is sort of the opposite of the message the maxim is trying to convey: that if you're narrow and circumscribed in your objectives, you're more likely to succeed.
Nope. Either way, you're getting a sledgehammer to the skull in the end. So why not eat as much as you can in the meantime.
I'm almost certainly going to keep using the aphorism. But, just to be clear, in my heart, I know it likely makes no actual sense.
