Re: A RADICAL THOUGHT
Theory is all well and good--I'm sure Rush has issued everyone here some plausible-sounding talking points. Unfortunately, theory often runs headfirst into reality and shatters into an irreparable mess. We (and by that I mean the United States--sorry Joey, are the new passport rules reciprocal?) have long gone past the station where we have limited government, and this train isn't going back. The only true remaining small government conservatives--my Libertarians--can't win a national election, and due to changing demographics, probably won't ever. Both ends of the spectrum want to use the power of the government to divvy up the spoils, they just favor different constituents.
Those truths being recognized, the reality of the situation is that poor people aren't going away. They are not going to peacefully let themselves and their families starve to death in order to please some pointy-headed political theorist who uses big words to legitimate social darwinism--it just isn't going to go down that way--no matter how much the haves wish "those people would just go away." Nor are poor people going to let themselves or their children die from sickness and disease just because they don't have money for treatment like the haves do. Along that point, as a society, we don't have the stomach to step over the bodies of dead children on the steps of our hospitals, so I don't foresee any type of push to legislate the refusal of treatment based on inability to pay. These are the realities of the situation. Additionally, poor people get to vote, and the ancient Romans showed us that the "mob will always vote itself more bread and circuses." Again, I am merely stating fact. While I think Atlas Shrugged is one of the finest pieces of literature ever penned, this country will not absorb its lesson in the forseeable future--and probably not ever. Once the framework of reality as set forth above is recognized, solutions which fit into that framework can then be constructed. Of course, I'm assuming a desire for solutions, rather than just an futile opportunity to demonstrate how much hatred for the next person the poster has. . .
I don't like what our government has become, but pissing into the wind about shoulda, woulda, coulda, or maybes and mights, is nothing more than a glorified circle-jerk. Taxes aren't "going away" and tax rates will remain progressive. Society--and again I'm speaking of American society--is not a zero-sum game where every piece of pie the next man gets means one less for me. A rudimentary understanding of economics can tell us that.
I have described reality for the forum; which "solutions" proposed in this thread would be workable in the real world?
Okay, back to entertaining stick-poking. . .
