I was raised by a single mother who worked very hard to support her children and taught us never to feel sorry for ourselves or our situation, just work and make things better for yourself because no one else will.
hey, that was an interesting post in reply.
It is an interesting post about yourself but at the end I am not quite sure what your position on taxation really is. Curiously enough, what you have said is that the care provided to you by the government turned your life around and made it a success. The training and discipline which the government paid for when you were in the navy made the difference for you. I dont know how long you were in the marines, but I would think this amounted to quite a bit.
Myself, I think the amount of money spent by governments around the world on the military is ridiculously huge. The US as the case in point spending more than any other country. You are an example of good coming from that money, but for me it would have been better spent directly on education, or if you wanted to find a real home for such a huge sum, on medical care. Or, if you really do not believe in state intervention, then not spent at all.
Your story is a case in point of the welfare state turning someones life around.
I was trying to find some figures on the cost of government. This seems a bit difficult for the US because you have two governments each with a budget and depending on which state. I checked some figures for the UK which say about 28% is spent on unemployment benefits and pensions. 18% on health, 13% on education, 6% defence, 5% police, 4% debt, 4% housing, 3% transport, and whatever. These figures must be a bit ballpark without going into them properly to separate them better. A different website suggests 18% pensions and 16% welfare, which may be due to looking at it from where the money goes rather than which department spends it. Government spending is about 1/4 of GDP. I dont know what that means exactly, either people pay about 1/4 of their income or about £10,000 each. The median salary is about £20,000 and the average £26,000, which rather implies salaries tend to shoot up at the top end. So obviously, the average person does not pay £10,000 to the government. The question is, would you be happy paying some or all of this?
I would suggest that everyone needs healthcare, and if people can not afford it, then they need it all the more. It comes in the same category as education. A state provides education free because it is good for everyone that people are educated. Likewise, good they are healthy. maybe you do not agree? Myself, I do not regard it as acceptable that people die because they are poor.
I also think that universal benefits are a lot better than means tested ones. If you only give people something because they are poor, then you create an incentive to stay poor. But on the other hand I think everyone is entitled not to starve in a society as rich as ours. Most of the wealth we enjoy was not earned by anyone but just comes from exploiting the planet we live on. Everyone deserves a share.
But in the end, what I have is mine, no one gave it to me, I never asked for anything, never whined and the thought of protesting someone else for their money is as foreign a concept to me as reasoned thought is apparently to you.
Sorry, but that isnt true. Someone brought you up. Human babies do not survive to grow up without care. Someone kept you alive far enough to join the navy. The navy paid to turn you into a decent citizen. You went to a medical school probably funded by gifts from past students. You learnt what people had spent lives discovering. You buy stuff people have spent lives developing. You live in a house made from bricks made from clay someone just dug out of the ground fired by burning oil someone else dug up for you. Yes, you are now contributing your bit but most of what you now enjoy was created by generations before you were born.