Quote Originally Posted by Skullheadhq View Post
That is not really a justification for a first-world country, now is it?
Okay then. Let's be blunt. I don't believe I have to justify a darn thing. We're better off and anyone who thinks we aren't is missing the boat.

I do not believe that equality of outcome is ever possible in a healthy economic system. Nothing works better than the marketplace, but the marketplace reflects the values of those people who comprise it -- and they do not value all contributions equally. There will always be people therefore -- some by happenstance, some by circumstance, and some by their own actions/choices -- who do not receive/benefit as much as others. To benefit the most people to the greatest extent, the goal is and must be to grow the entirety of the economy and enhance wealth. This drags up the lowest in society too. Do they benefit as much as the economic winners? Or course not. But they do benefit.

THAT has been the story of the USA. We work hard, got lucky, and had fewer idiot stumbling blocks put in the way of people's success. So right now, today, you can live a life in the USA as a poor person that is better than the life of a poor person virtually anywhere else. Poverty is NOT relative when you are living it. You either have enough to eat or you don't. You have drinkable water or you don't. You have a roof over your head or you don't. You have affordable entertainment that engages you or you don't. You have access to learning or you don't. By all of these standards, the poor in the USA are better off.

Doesn't mean I don't want to see things get even better. Doesn't mean I don't do charity effort to help out. But "poverty" in in the USA is $5500 per person per year with no taxes and a bunch of publicly funded services. It just isn't the same thing.