Again, I disagree with you on your equating someone who doesn't choose to help others with someone who leeches off of the help of others. One of these people has done something very right in their lives to get to a point at which they are very well off. The other has decided that doing something in life is not worth the effort, and has realized that it is easier to live off of someone else. The second option I personally find repugnant. If our government didn't allow people the chance to live off of others in the long run then I would be much much happier. Now, people who want help should be able to get help that is predicated on advancement. The only people who should receive long term/life long financial support from the government are people with mental and physical disabilities.
Okay, i didn't see the taking it to another thread thing until the end, I would be happy to do that if you want to but let me answer the rest of your post first. Military spending is out of hand no doubt but this is more a result of poor planning and decision making than anything. As far as I am concerned we should only be in one war and that would be with the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. From the point at which we won the military fight against the Iraqi forces we continuously screwed that situation up time and time again thanks to Paul Bremer and Donald Rumsfeld. We never should have been there in the first place but they really screwed the pooch on that one. But to my real critique, the way our government works is entirely inefficient. It would benefit greatly from hiring some capitalist pigs to streamline the operation of departments. Also it could use a complete overhaul of entitlements and subsidies from the ground up. We should move to a consumption tax and reinstate allodial title to go along with it. Social security should be thrown out of the window or overhauled in a major way. Medicaid and Medicare should also be overhauled and streamlined. All this being said I have no problem funding public good projects at voter's discretion. The problem is that these projects need to be run very efficiently and with the understanding that we are pushing every tax dollar as far is it can go not that it is the government so lets buy a 200 dollar hammer. America's tax dollars could serve her much better. Also you mentioned that we should fund social programs that work. I totally agree with this however, before we fund a program we should have it paid for by cutting spending somewhere else. More importantly, we need to have a fully fleshed out plan in place before the program starts so that it has a reasonable expectation of success in its first 10 years. These plans should also include methods for determining the success of the program on an objective basis. If after the first 5 years we aren't seeing the results we need then the program should be on notice, at the 10 year mark if it hasn't achieved its intended goal, the program is scrapped and the money goes to fund something else. As it is, the govt just throws money away which is certainly not a good way of working. My position is that; 1. The government needs a total overhaul in how it spends money within the agencies that exist. 2. All agencies and govt programs need to be reevaluated every 5-10 years to ensure that they are within spending limits and are accomplishing their goals, the saving money part could be supported by bonuses to management or efficiency professionals. 3. The tax system should be overhauled. 4. Social programs should be extremely efficient and serve as only short term help to those who need it. 5. We need prison reform. Prisoners should not be living in the lap of luxury. They should work and pay for themselves. 6. Our government should get back to protecting our rights rather than protecting our lives. If I want to smoke clove cigs I should be able to. Period. As every year goes by this country becomes less and less free and the framers of our constitution and our founding fathers would be appalled by the country we have become. There are probably a million more things I have to say in regards to the government and the misappropriation of money, power, and thought so if we must, let us take it to PMs or a new thread.
