| richardhutnik said: I NEVER said government is society. I don't accept that. What I do accept is government of a society is a reflection of its collective values, what it does, and what it fails to do. In a democratic society, the government will be a measure of what that society is. And you will see government grow in areas where there are problems, where the public has concern, but fails to act. So, if you see a growing welfare state, you will end up having a society with more poor people in it, and a society that wants there to be a semblance of a safety net. You don't just dismantle the safety net, and expect the underlying causes of the safety net, to go away. I also believe there is such a thing as a social contract in societies, and a set of collective values where rights are met with responsibilities, and there are degrees of expected outcomes people have when they meet these responsibilities. And when these break down, you have problems. If you want to understand the core of my concern, it is that I am NOT a destructionist. I do not believe in revolutions. I believe in more gradual change with things, and I hate to see people harmed from people just tearing stuff down. In this sense I am pretty conservative. And with this, I have issues with just getting rid of things and replacing it with nothing. I found the rabble in Occupy wanting this to be inane, and I also find the GOP side wanting to slash and burn the safety net equally inane. |
So why, then, do you constantly hammer on this point that if the government doesn't do something it means we will live in a society that doesn't value that thing? My belief that the government should be involved in welfare, according to you, isn't the result of my belief that welfare is morally corrosive and corrupts the system, that government interventionism creates a moribund economy, or that tremendous harm - ranging from accidentally created shortages all the way to the most monstrous of mankind's evils - has been done by political regimes in the name of caring; it's because I simply hate poor people.
I'd wager that nearly everyone believes in social contract theory complete with rights and responsibilities, so that isn't really saying much at all. The devil is in the details.
When the GOP candidates want to save Medicare and means test Social Security and turn Medicare and food stamps into block grants, this is hardly a party that wants to get rid of the safety net.
