The Top 40

Actually:

"The government decides to try to increase the middle class by subsidizing things that middle class people have: If middle-class people go to college and own homes, then surely if more people go to college and own homes, we’ll have more middle-class people. But homeownership and college aren’t causes of middle-class status, they’re markers for possessing the kinds of traits — self-discipline, the ability to defer gratification, etc. — that let you enter, and stay, in the middle class. Subsidizing the markers doesn’t produce the traits; if anything, it undermines them."

instapundit/106691/
Dubbed Reynold's Law:
http://philoofalexandria.wordpress.com/2010/09/25/reynolds-law/

Herbert Stein, economist in the Nixon Administration and Father of Ben, was the formulator of "Herbert Stein's Law," which he expressed as "If something cannot go on forever, it will stop,"

What Glenn Reynolds, the Blogfather, wrote yesterday day http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/160645/ was:

Something that can’t go on forever, won’t. Debts that can’t be repaid, won’t be. Promises that can’t be kept, won’t be. Make your plans accordingly.

The last part might have been the most important.

My fsil, came up with this formulation during his thanksgiving weekend visit:

"Things that can't continue on forever won't.
Things that are unsustainable can keep going longer than you thought possible, and fall apart faster than you imagined.
The end result will be more bizarre than anything projected."

Shouldn't the title read: Reynolds' Law? [Yes, yes, yes. Fixed.]