Fantastique wrote:
Ohhhh gotcha. Interesting.
I think we (the fortunate) should have an obligation to pay for other people (who may be strangers but are still our fellow Americans, just less fortunate) since we are all citizens of this great country and we should help one another out. It propels us toward a brighter future. That being said, I don't think a few people should (or even can) do it on their own. But if a lot of fortunate people contribute, the effect is greater. Wouldn't it be awesome if we didn't have poverty in this nation? How about no homeless people? How about through-the-roof literacy? That would be sweet! Call me an idealist, an optimist, or downright naive, but if everyone in the US was well-to-do, we'd be a far greater country than we are now.
I think we all agree and think that would win so hard that we'd go blind, but the issue isn't "do we want this," it's "how do we get to this," and the way we've been doing it in this country for the last...80 years(?) hasn't worked, but some people want to not just keep rolling with it, but expand it. When you say things like that, though, some people shrug it off by saying it's just because you "hate poor people," but that's not the case, especially since I'm not exactly wealthy. We can't have a serious discussion about the subject until every argument against one side isn't "you hate (insert group here)," or some other silliness to that effect.
Your Pal,
Jubber