On a personal note, I am thankful that the government “handouts” were around during my temporary time of need. Not all of us are trying to take advantage.
.-= Ginger´s last blog ..Feel Good Friday: To The Moon! =-.

I do agree with your point about “collective mediocrity,” though. Because, you know, I’m a *winner*.

I think we may actually be on the same page with some things here. I was ready for General Motors to go under. It wasn’t the taxpayers fault that they were broke and out of money. No lesson was learned on that, IMO.
.-= martymankins´s last blog ..iPhone Monopoly =-.

I think that Affirmative Action is important because this country is still rife with racism in some parts, even though we’d like to think otherwise. I think that welfare and free indigent health care are important because, as Finn said, a child cannot help themselves nor can they help the predicament in which their parents put them. I don’t think participation awards can squash the natural drive of any student yet can definitely make someone who may never win anything feel a little better about themselves.

There’s not a lot of kindness attached to “natural selection” and while I don’t believe in coddling and fostering an attitude that people don’t have to take care of themselves or be responsible for their actions, I do believe that the world needs a helluva lot more compassion, even in politics.

All that said, it is good to remember that social animals like humans evolved compassion (including looking out for the weak) as a survival mechanism.

There should be winners and losers and losing should be painful but I’m not sure that somebody who’s never lost should be allowed to arbitrarily decide the level of pain for those who loose. All those who can’t afford health care should die? No. All those who can’t afford health care should not be able to go to the doctor for a common cold or order unnecessary tests or get treatments that aren’t absolutely necessary? Yes. Now, who decides what’s unnecessary and how do we create a system that does have the kind of winners and losers that you want without regularly sentencing the poor to death or severe debilitation? That seems to be the problem.

What we have is broken and keeping it is not an option even if there is a segment of the population that likes it broken.
.-= marilyn´s last blog ..Yay! =-.

The problem I have with letting people pay taxes at the end of the month/year is that there are many stupid people out there that cannot manage their bills as it is. The government would spend a lot more time and money chasing these fools who spent all of their earnings rather than putting it aside for taxes. Then where would we be?
.-= Finn´s last blog ..To Be Or Not To Be =-.