[Cog]

We must paddle our own boats from now on. Depending on the government to do so ignores the math of the situation. At current rates of growth, Medicare consumes the entire US federal budget in 15 years. Course, we won't actually get to that point, since the US will collapse under the debt load long before that.

Both Tea Party conservatives with their military spending and progressives with their demands for increased social spending ignore the simple math of trying to do all this in a post-peak world. Not going to happen and if you are relying on the government going forward, you will be sorely disappointed about being lied to.

Ron Paul has the right idea. We shouldn't cut one trillion in deficit spending over 10 years, we should cut one trillion this year. Take our fiscal medicine like a man.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViRZpI2aCkk

[Cloud9]

The status quo will crash the currency to save the system and lose both. Ron Paul will crash the system and save the currency.

[Cog]

On the theory that half a loaf is better than none, I'll take that deal.

[Pretorian]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', '
')Taking from the rich and giving to the poor doesn't work, won't work, and shouldn't be done even if it did work.

[vision-master]

I think cog is saying no.

[Cog]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pretorian', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', '
')Taking from the rich and giving to the poor doesn't work, won't work, and shouldn't be done even if it did work.

[vision-master]

Like the pay $75 a year for the fire department in Tennesee otherwise if your house burns down, too bad?

Next will be, you want police protection - pay your yearly fee......

[Cid_Yama]

No. Next comes the police come bust up your stuff if you don't pay protection money. We were there before.

[Cog]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vision-master', 'L')ike the pay $75 a year for the fire department in Tennesee otherwise if your house burns down, too bad?

Next will be, you want police protection - pay your yearly fee......

[basil_hayden]

Does the right to eat exceed the right to protect profits?

The Declaration of Independence mentions life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

I think life requires food, water and air.

You want more liberty but to what extent do we protect the fortunate few's right to the pursuit of hapiness in a rigged system?

[Cog]

Try as I might, I can find no enumerated right to eat in the Constitution. What I do find inferred in the Constitution is the right to be left alone by the government to pursue my ambitions within the constraints of law.

If I do not wish to eat today, I am content that no one forces me to do so. Maybe I'm not hungry or am on a diet. Furthermore, your desire to eat today confers no obligation on my part to make is happen. You may ask me to give you money to buy food if you wish and I might oblige if I desire. Or perhaps you can elect those people who desire to use the US Treasury's revenues for that purpose. I am free to vote against those people. Its a win situation for all concerned.

[PrestonSturges]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', 'T')ry as I might, I can find no enumerated right to eat in the Constitution. What I do find inferred in the Constitution is the right to be left alone by the government to pursue my ambitions within the constraints of law.

If I do not wish to eat today, I am content that no one forces me to do so. Maybe I'm not hungry or am on a diet. Furthermore, your desire to eat today confers no obligation on my part to make is happen. You may ask me to give you money to buy food if you wish and I might oblige if I desire. Or perhaps you can elect those people who desire to use the US Treasury's revenues for that purpose. I am free to vote against those people. Its a win situation for all concerned.

[Cog]

I'll see your Thomas Paine and raise you a Thomas Jefferson:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.

[Loki]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', 'T')ry as I might, I can find no enumerated right to eat in the Constitution.

[PrestonSturges]

There are a lot of good online references about enumerated rights and the Bill Of Rights. i just ordered a book on the states ratification debates. Clearly the antifederalists considered the Constitution to be a strongly federalist document, or they would not have insisted on a Bill Of Rights to balance it. Later of course the Federalists would become the Republicans.

[Shaved Monkey]

If we were to see the scrapping of food stamps as Cog suggests
You will certainly see a rapid increase in the employment opportunities in all aspects of the security industry and the funeral industry.
I would imagine more taxes might need to spent on the police force,prison and judicial system though.

[PrestonSturges]

As it is, I think we are going to see dramatic decreases in life expectancy over the next decade.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', 'I') see.

So we need more welfare state to prevent more welfare state? Sometimes your illogically formed statements defy any effort to unscramble them.

[Cog]

Doubling the minimum wage would result in the immediate firing of even more of the people you seem to care about. It would raise prices for everything minimum wage people produce, hitting the poorest people the hardest. Jobs would not be coming back here. They would be leaving in droves to overseas shores.

Bottom line is, its not the government's affair what I pay my workers. They are free to leave if they don't like the pay. Getting rid of the minimum wage sounds like a capital idea to me. Given the service I get at McDonalds, its clear the workers are vastly over-payed as is. Freedom to choose for all.

The world has fundamentally changed and taxing the wealthy is just another class envy dream to bring others down to your level.

More Jefferson because he can not be quoted enough:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

[Shaved Monkey]

Australia's minimum wage is $15.51 per hour or $589.30 per week
Unemployment is 5.3%
Unemployed get rental assistance and $486.80 a fortnight(as a single)
Plus free Medical for everyone
seems to work ok here