I see a problem both in aiding the poor by taking money from the wealthy just as I see a problem in "helping" Iraqis. IMO we should not have invaded. As for the poor, like I have always said, social programs that reward the poor for being poor never work in the long run. This is simple reasoning and economics here, folks. If you create an incentive to be poor by rewarding it, more people will be poor and on welfare. Thus, the people will still receive money while the total amount of money/product available in the US will be smaller because less work will be done. So overall, the economy would worsen.

Legislated niceness is not the answer. If you want to help the poor, donate to them. Just be aware that this will let them know that they can earn money for doing no work while begging, so they will ask the question: why work when I can get money begging? By legislating it, you simply solidify that reasoning with law.

Many of the poor are in their position because they decided to have kids they could not afford, and thanks to the welfare system, this is rewarded. You couldn't be much more efficient in harming yourself that with a set of laws like that.

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If a neocon whines about big government wealth redistribution, just ask him what he thinks about the portion of that big government that sends aid to Israel.

Spoken like a 14 year old who just finished reading Ayn Rand..............

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“ The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state.”

Adam Smith , The Wealth of Nations 1776

"We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; we know now that it is bad economics"
FDR's second Inaugural Address

Spoken like someone who stopped arguing and ignored points in this post, only to take a quick jab via insult without argument later on in the thread.

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If a neocon whines about big government wealth redistribution, just ask him what he thinks about the portion of that big government that sends aid to Israel.

We left ?
Hell, I must have missed that in the news......

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Anyone who thinks freedom comes cheap, please put the blindfold on and stand against the wall.

Many times I believe Americans will have to take back the country and start a new government.

What the hell is a 4 yr old doing trying to make a living ?

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Anyone who thinks freedom comes cheap, please put the blindfold on and stand against the wall.

Many times I believe Americans will have to take back the country and start a new government.

Agree.....I have seen far too many teens and young adults pop out kids because they know welfare will take care of them.........Driving by our "many" local welfare housing projects, you see many women with 3,4,5 kids because they get extra money....Hell, I've seen cases where the mother was on welfare and the father worked and lived there but it was unreported and they weren't married because welfare would then kick them off.

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Anyone who thinks freedom comes cheap, please put the blindfold on and stand against the wall.

Many times I believe Americans will have to take back the country and start a new government.

If you want to sell the idea that Capitalism is evil you gotta dress it up a bit. You know, everyone feels sorry for a 4 year old with down syndrome working for minimum wage so we can all agree that capitalism is evil.

Although I heard the 4 year old with downs syndrome was born with no arms and no legs, so capitalism must be super evil.

What are you talking about? I was making a generalized assumption based on how people react here toward poverty; as well as countless research on the degradation of wages and the depletion of the US dollar value. That, to me, says that we stop caring years and years ago.

Of course it is. They endorse it and obey it. Government is involved in businesses more than you would even want to know.

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Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.

- George Orwell, 1984

Oh Ronald. It isn't just the poor that are affected by Capitalism you know... what about the working class? Those are the ones who work a full-time job at a below-average wage and live paycheck to paycheck. You know, Regan was pretty senile toward the end of his term...

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Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.

- George Orwell, 1984

College tuition is soaring because colleges are able to get away with continuously charging more and more every year and people continuing to pay it. Ironically, the left is complaining that the Federal Government needs to increase the amount of government loans to aid with the rising cost, but the increase in available loans is part of what is causing the cost to rise. As long as students are able to take out more and more in loans that they can pay off later, universities will continue to raise their prices. It won't be until enrollment drops that they will be forced to lower their tuition costs. Additionally, universities waste a lot of money.

Then you're ignorant of history. My great-grandparents came here in 1923 from Italy with no place to go, knowing little to no English, and they had no social services to help them out like people today. When they died, they had an estate worth 1/2 million dollars because they opened up their own restaurant shortly after settling in Pennsylvania. They worked it from dawn to dusk, seven days a week, closing only one week out of the year to take a break. My great-grandmother ran this restaurant up until three months before she died at the age of 91, and she only stopped those last three months because she fell and broke her hip. They didn't know what retirement was, or what vacation was, or sick days, or pensions and they NEVER complained.

And you have the nerve to say it isn't easy today. Grow up. I'd like to see you do what they did. Americans today are spoiled rotten.

I don't know whether your two and half paychecks claim is true or not, but I do agree that most families require both parents to work today. However, as Robert pointed out, a lot of that is due to lifestyle choices. Additionally, people are paying out a lot more in taxation today than they did 50 years ago and before.

Again, pure ignorance on your part. They get paid what they get paid because that is what the market demands they get paid. You don't pay a burger flipper $15 an hour because he isn't worth $15 an hour. There is no special skill involved to do that. Anyone off the street can come in and do that job. Just because you and others of the economic school of Marxist thought think he should get paid more so he can afford a house, doesn't make it so. If you want him to make $15 an hour you better be prepared to pay $5 for a McDonald's hamburger, which of course you wouldn't and couldn't because at those prices McDonald's would go out of business and all those people were at least making $7 an hour flipping burgers will now be unemployed and out on the street. I'm sure they'll thank you for looking out for them.

Americans donate to private charities more than any other people in the world.

Oh, it only seems that way, does it? Why don't you sit down with someone who used to live in Cuba, or China, or the former Soviet Union and ask them why they left those "lush Communist paradises" for the evil Capital U.S.A since they had such better systems.

America is about opporunity and everyone has the opportunity to make something of themselves and achieve whatever goal they desire. As we've stated before, the only thing holding them back is themself.

Now you're contradicting yourself. You have just portrayed the working class as having nothing, therefore, the rich can't be robbing them. You can't rob someone of something they don't have.

Well, this I agree with you on. I am totally against our government sending foreign aid to other nations. That should be done through charities only.

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"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

President George W. Bush, 8-5-2004

Carolina Politics Online

THIS IS REAL HOPE AND CHANGE!

Private charity doesn't work. This is why we have welfare...

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Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.

- George Orwell, 1984

You guys are not paying attention to a word I write, You are taking my comments as if I don't understand what is going on. I am telling you that I know how businesses and the government works - I am merely expressing how Captialism and Imperialism affects the poor and working class. I am also expressing that we need government reform. I do think that "free enterprise" is taken to the point where it screws over a lot working people and the government cannot seem to come up with any other solution to aid the poor other than welfare. I am going by my own experiences and research, as well as others I have personally known and talked to whom have noticed things worsening. Thus, why I brought forth the example of real estate plummeting, due to the price inflation caused by the rich who buy the overpriced homes. Much like the stock crash of the 1920s that led to the Great Depression - if things become too costly the economy will fall along with its investors. The consumers have less control over the CPI than you think. In times of war the government usually steps in to regulate the prices. I don't see them doing it this time around, hence affecting real estate and people who aren't fortunate enough to survive in a failing economy. Bottomline: If you don't see it or live it, then you are going to continue to be blind to it. In time, it will fall on you like a ton of bricks, once the economy falls. I'm still standing by the toilet.

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Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.

- George Orwell, 1984

I hate to break it to you, but you're a Marxist and Marxist's have no idea how buisness works. Just saying it doesn't make it so. You're attitude that it is the government's responsibility to take care of the poor is a proven failure. Marxism has failed over and over and over again.

Other then that the only real argument you have is emotional, and while its nice to feel good about yourself and all that, you can't run a national economy on emotion.

Hi. I'm Earth - have we met?... It is a fact that it is the government's responsibility to aid the poor - otherwise we would have private charity and not welfare. How am I wrong and how is that anything emotional?

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Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.

- George Orwell, 1984

In a country like the United States with plenty of economic opportunity it is the responsibility of the individual to aid themselves. Your basic arguement of 'the poor people are poor so we should feel sorry for the poor poor people' is purely emotional.