But leaving aside that ownership of the product of one's own labor is also a right, we've long since departed from serving the poorest among us. Obamacare for instance offers subsidies to four times the poverty line. We now have roughly half of all American households receiving some sort of government check, and roughly one of every six Americans is on food stamps. Our immigration policy is geared toward bringing in as many poor, educated people as possible. Our domestic policy is driving manufacturers out of our country in favor of imported goods, first by domestic companies but eventually by foreign companies. Automation will continue to require fewer workers to produce the same amount of goods, on top of all these other things which devalue labor. And we've already apparently created an economy where manufacturing and wealth creation have been replaced with government borrowing and redistribution, an economy where yesterday's recession is today's normal, where we celebrate our economy creating fewer new jobs than we have new workers and create "low" unemployment by growing our permanently unemployed class.
This is not an academic question, and its importance will only increase with time.
As a related question, let's not forget that our elected officials almost always either start wealthy or soon become wealthy, so that we're reliant on the wealthy to sheer the wealthy for our benefit. If one truly believes that one has the right to take whatever one wants, perhaps one should first work on establishing very short term limits if not randomly selected representatives. Otherwise the wealthy representing us are always going to provide themselves with an extra 10% before voting to give up an extra 5%.
Well... we've learned new ways to cope with recessions.
I'm all for causing legislation to ... not force but, rather, make going to work a few steps up from 'welfare'.
I'm against any attempt to toss the disabled into the cold... IF there is a legitimate inability to work and 40 qtrs. of payments made into Social Security those folks are eligible and should be. The other disabled will have to resort to welfare.
I'm all for massive penalties for hiring illegal aliens and funding out of those penalties the means to enforce the dam law...
The biggest fence along a border is one that creates a disincentive to cross it.
The easiest way to thwart the inflow of drugs is to make them legally obtainable here... folks will use drugs one way or another until the reason goes away. The penalty of arrest and its resulting activity does not seem to curtail usage.
IF we're to subsidize farmers to not farm.. then let them farm or whatever and distribute the food stuff to the needy.
Further stimulate the economy in ways that benefit all citizens... Electric grid, intelligent nuclear, solar, wind, bridges, roads and any thing else that has a high multiplier. The return or payback is within a reasonably manageable economic cycle.... or was when I was more conversant with such things.
I want everyone to be able to keep what they generate in terms of wealth less a reasonable taxing scenario. Wars should create a war tax... I seem to recall one years ago. We have to stop the notion of being the world cop. I suppose the One World Economy tries to obtain that condition... but, it seems some folks have other ideas and economic issues be damned.
Many realities that I lived with are different today than then so what I may have chosen to implement had I the crown won't work with the same effect. Some things will always happen... like folks will vote for the best deal they can get and the nation be damned... We need a Congress with the guts... and a President who'll lead the nation and not some part of it... as well as a population all moving to the center and away from the insanity of either end.