I started life in abject poverty, on my own without a dollar as a teen, never received any benefits or welfare assistance, but am financially well off now. What do I owe you? What do you- via government - have a right to take my money from me for and essentially make it your money instead? MULTIPLE CHOICE PUBLIC POLL.
When I was a kid, the only money in my pocket was money I earned mowing lawns. As a young teen, I picked pears and cherries in the summer for a local farmer. After high school, I worked as a grocery worker and on a box assembly line, and then joined the Army. I've been working ever since, and now, at age 60, I too am financially secure. So here's my two cents ... For me, it's not a matter of "owing" anybody anything. We are fortunate to be Americans. Our country has been successful, and we are truly the most fortunate souls to have ever been born in the history of mankind. So if I support the things our society does to protect our most vulnerable (children, the sick, the disabled, the elderly) it is because I want to do that. All I know is that it's not that I owe it to the less fortunate. It's that I owe it to myself.
I agree, the government shouldn't take money from those who work the hardest and give it to those who work the least. In any society, you reward those who do the eight thing and punishment those who don't, in a hope that we get more people doing the right thing. To me wealth distribution is just rewarding the lazy. I feel this is why over 50% of the working age population are on government handouts.
I agree with hotdogr, it was of his own free will...Before the government got overly involved in regulating everything, such as churches, private charities...Most people willingly helped others through donating to their church, shriners, red cross, etc. Now most guard their personal wealth by hiding it, feeling that the government takes too much already. The US is still the most generous country in the world... But I disagree with the Government or a Union deciding where my money will be spent. I already donate considerably to hunters for the hungry which uses wild game donated to feed the homeless and underprivelaged...Last year I donated over 1000 lbs...Too bad the IRS doesn't recognize this as charity. f****** bureacrats.
I owe the welfare-sponging Thugs, the white trash and the Mexican immigrants NOTHING. Taxes should be reduced to NOTHING.
What do you owe me? Rent for the roads you drive on, built by my tax dollars. Rent for the public schools that educate your doctor, dentist and burger flipper, paid for by my tax dollars. Payment for fire services and police services, paid for by my tax dollars. Of course we ALL pay for these things through taxation in any advanced country that has public services.
They don’t. They aim to take some from those who have the most money and give to those who have the most need. Lots of people work really hard but earn very little while others work very little but gain lots of money (often on the backs of the first group). The idea that the poor and all lazy and the rich all hard working is a gross distortion of reality.
There was a famous quote that's almost exactly like that. I think it was one of the Marx brothers. Harpo, maybe?
I think once you are sure there is adequate opportunity out there for everybody to get by, you don't owe them much of anything. Let's face it, this is becoming the land of choked-off opportunity.
That's the theory, however it never works that way. Just look at every society with a welfare state, even Australia and the USA. There is an increasing population that seek to game the system and live off welfare their entire life while those responsible people who work for their living increasingly get their earnings taken away from them. These days it really is the guys who work hard get punished and those who choose to live off the government are rewarded for their choices.
When has there not been people who play the system to get the most they can out of it? I question whether this is an increasing problem in itself and I question whether it’s as extensive as is commonly imagined. The problem is pretty much everyone thinks they work hard (or would if they had the opportunity) and that they deserve what they get or more. What are your proposals for change that solve these fundamental issues of human nature?
Socialism doesn't punish those people who game this system though. It continues to reward them. True capitalism (you know the one where the government is controlled by the people, not the other way around) has a perfect solution for this, its called game theory, where the dominant strategy is to work hard, and punish those who do the wrong thing through free market economics (i.e if a business does bad things, then the business doesn't get any more money and goes under, or the bubble bursts and the industry crumbles). Capitalism uses failures as a mechanism to weed out undesirable behaviour. In a socialist society, the dominant strategy is to live off the other people, while the others work to pay your way. As time goes on this gets harder and harder to do, society gets to the tipping point collapses under its own weight (see Argentina for details of how it happens), and free market economics comes in and punishes the lazy and we get a system resembling capitalism again. The cycle repeats. This is has happened time and time again. When will the human race learn, I will never know. The parents educate their children that freedom is more powerful than money and for their children to protect their freedom (and fight those who seek to dilute it) and never let anyone take it away. The problem with freedom is it's hard to fight for, but even harder to keep as people always their freedom for granted. The only reason why America has lasted so long is because of the First Amendment, I pray that the american people vote Trump as president to restore free speech into the public arena. Please if you are in America, please vote for free speech, vote for political incorrectness, vote for Donald Trump, because the world needs him.
I’m talking about the real world, not fantasy political rhetoric. No political principle implicitly punishes bad behaviour (not least because there’s no singular definition of bad behaviour in this context) and not significant nation is run under any singular political principle anyway. That’s why we have some people who abuse welfare systems and some people who abuse free markets – often it’s the same people. We also have people establishing or following both systems in ways that have overall negative outcomes. Sitting around playing stupid label politics is a major party of the problem. Notably their freedom, not anybody else’s. Your preferred system isn’t about benefiting everyone, only about benefiting the most powerful. The weak, poor, old and infirm are just to be used or discarded to support your freedom and build your wealth. Isn’t it strange that so many other nations have existed for so much longer that the USA without any First Amendments (not that it has anything to do with the topic of discussion anyway).
We know dozens of people are defrauding the government for benefits such as drawing disability while working for cash, working under the table so to qualify for welfare and food stamps, and just lazy ass people who won't work because why should they when they can live off the government?
If you re-read my point you will notice that I outlined that Capitalism does implicitly punish bad behaviour. But here is a question, your bad behaviour might be good behaviour from another view point , so how do you determine what is good behaviour and what is bad? In a socialist system it's a single dictator (which may have their own agenda for more power) determines what is considered good and what is considered bad. Under a capitalist society, the community as a whole decides. I am talking about the real world, if you look at all the issues we face today, most of them stem from the implementation of the socialist ideology. And we need to be blunt that socialism in any form is a cancer on society. Whether it's full blown socialism (AKA communism), or small scale socialism, we need to get rid of it. Look through history, and you will see that once society succumbs to a form socialism, it starts to decline. Have a look at Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire and North Korea for a few examples. In the places where socialism has worked, there has been a community effort to punish those who use the system for their own benefit (often through capitalist means). You do know everyone has parents, right? My preferred system is about benefitting those who work hard, and punishing those who don't. This gives us a society where everyone who can pulls their weight. My preferred system also includes family love as part of the solution. The family should be the ones caring for the weak, the poor and the old. In my preferred system, everyone people help each other. My preferred system is about educating that money is not everything. How many socialist nations have lasted longer than US?
Don't know, but my mortgage payment is due in 3 days. Where's my check? You are supposed to be paying for my housing.
Where are you getting the idea that socialism automatically involves dictatorship and capitalism some form of democracy?!? I think this just shows the problems of throwing such generic labels around. The manner by which “bad behaviour” is defined, identified and punished can be largely independent of those two labels. I’d like to see you explain how. As I see it, the major issues we face today stem from historical social conflict, imbalanced distribution of resources and impacts from changing populations and lifestyles. There are all sorts of influences there, some relevant to socialism, some to capitalism but many other things entirely. The solutions will involve a combination of factors too. I’d suggest any statement in the form of “Most of our issues stem from X” is wrong regardless of the “X” you choose to blame. Yes, a combination of the concepts is the only practical outcome and pretty much always has been, to the point that establishing them as singular labels is irrelevant. Nothing is simply socialist or simply capitalist, even where there has been nominally the case such as communist dictatorships or totally unregulated trade. Sadly not. Clearly families caring for and supporting each other is something to be celebrated and promoted and is something we’ve lost in recent years. It can’t be an answer to all social issues though – even in a perfect world where everyone prioritised caring for family members, there would in holes and gaps that would require someone or something else to fill. Again though, none of this is directly ensured or prevented by either socialism or capitalism as fundamental political concepts. Your statement was about the First Amendment, which has nothing to do with the US being socialist or capitalist. It actually supports the US succeeding with a long establish combination of both.
Why do we have to go that far when Obama and Hillary want to bring the Middle East here? - - - Updated - - - Oh and nobody has a right to anothers money. Stop begging for handouts.
