Not every city needs its own state-of-the-art airport; not every city needs a water park.

Sometimes, requests for federal funding are for legitimate needs, such as water treatment plant improvements. Other times, local politicians are merely seeking federal assistance to keep up with the Joneses.

Citizens, too, feed into the mix when (for lack of better ideas for funding) they turn to the almighty checkbook, seeking support for their “pet projects.” Yes, there are legitimate community service programs which deserve public support, but how many private interests skip other fundraising efforts and go straight to the nearest politician?

Due, in part, to a sense of entitlement — whereby even the remotest village passionately believes it, too, deserves a multi-million dollar industrial park — politicians with the power to pay out big bucks are put into precarious positions.

The political philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli, who died in 1527, sensed that tension between pleasing the populace and maintaining the public good.

He argued that a ruler could be generous to his constituency only at the expense of the very people supposedly benefiting from his generosity. In effect, citizens must eventually foot the bill for the gifts they receive. Eventually, the government, Machiavelli said, will use up all its resources and will “be obliged to burden the people with excessive taxes… if (the politician) wishes to maintain his reputation for generosity.”

However, Machiavelli suggested politicians spend less lavishly, and as a result, citizens would come to appreciate their low tax rates more than the pork they were previously served.

He wrote, “With time (the politician) will come to be considered more generous once it is evident that, as a result of his (frugality)…he can undertake enterprises without overburdening his people, so that he comes to be generous with all those from whom he takes nothing.”

Of course, it should be noted that Machiavelli was writing to princes who served until death or revolution — not to elected officials whose most effective tools for self-preservation and reelection are giant-sized cardboard checks.

Adam Sulfridge is a staff writer for the Times-Tribune. He can be reached at asulfridge@thetimestribune.com