I know you're not lecturing people. But that is the argument against any form of safety net. That people should just be responsible for themselves. This isn't the Wild West anymore nor should it be. If we want the Wild West then fine, corporations can hand back in all their tax incentives and deductions for raping the public and we can stop doing "interventions" overseas so that American industries can go in and get lucrative tax subsidized contracts to do reconstruction work or oil distribution.
And, I don't have any neighbors making millions of dollars, do you? My neighbors probably pay a couple thousand (like, 5 or less) each April. They're on the higher side of middle class and all have homes and insurance. I don't see any of them being coerced out of anything. You make it sound like the taxman comes to a struggling family's house and beats them up until he gets a cut. Let's talk about who we're really talking about. Corporations and the wealthy and the upper middle class and above.
Do you know, btw, any stable investments I can put money in where less than 3% of their costs go to administrative costs and bureaucracy and hedge fund manager paychecks? Cause I'll put the money there instead of SS, if you can guarantee it's not going to grab all the money and duck out to Switzerland or the Caymans and leave me broke. I doubt there is one, though.
The idea that everything private runs better than everything government is just myth, Strike. Current events should be testament to that. Enron, Citibank, Wall Street, Countrywide, mortgage lenders, WAMU, the CA energy contractors, Halliburton... If you want to talk about humans being corrupt and greedy, okay, but I don't see why you would draw a line that private is better than public in that regard. I see no evidence of it.
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