[Tommy]

Excaliber,
I'm not joining the discussion in progress. Rather, I'm starting a new tangent to it.

From out earlier discussions, I concluded that you have a noble view of the human spirit. It is consistent with a point of view I first heard described during a seminar about thirty years ago. The speaker offered his opinion of a fundamental difference in the world views of Amercans born before and during the Baby Boom, and those born after. People born after the Baby Boom generation tend to believe each person is entitled to a government guaranteed minimum standard of living just because they are Americans. There can be some debate as to whether that minimum standard does or does not include premium cable channels and high speed Internet service, but it certainly includes housing, food, suitable clothing for children, etc. People born during and before the Baby Boom tend to believe each person is entitled only to what he earns.

People who share the entitled point of view and are also financially secure tend to feel obliged to help their less capable or less fortunate fellow citizens. As they think this noble point of view is the way everyone should feel, they would rather see the government tax everyone of means to provide this assistance. They tend to think of people who don't share this point of view as selfish and not enlightened.

People who think people deserve only what they earn would not allow the less capable and unfortunate to simply die of neglect. But they think the decision to help unfortunates should be made by individuals rather than the government. Their genuine concern is that providing a generous government guaranteed minimum standard of living will discourage many people from contributing anything of value to society. I happen to share this view.

In my mind, a system of government that provides a very low guaranteed minimum standard of living for all citizens is desirable. I want the standard to be high enough to preclude food riots but not so high it encourages people to be satisfied with the life style it affords. In my mind, the comments about trends toward socialism over the past year are shorthand for concerns that our government is tending to raise the minimum standard higher than it needs be solely so the politicians currently in power can increase the number of their constituents. In other words, politicians are willing to put the long term economic health of the nation at risk in order to stay in office and in power. Based on my personal experience, that is not an unreasonable way to expect politicians to act.