brent wrote:separateunion wrote:
Capitalism breeds greed and an every man for himself attitude.
False. As evidenced in heaven before creation, you don't need no stinkin economy for that to happen. On earth it exists in every economy.
I never said it didn't exist in any other type of economy, but it is far worse on a personal level than most other economic systems. No man made economic system will ever be perfect.
People are just able to have more of whatever they want in a successful free-market economy.
That's not necessarily a good thing and further proves my point. Mankind, being fallen, will too often get whatever they want (selfishness) at the expense of doing good.
I would bet that it is made worse in situations where all of the people have little to nothing, regardless of the work and contributions they do or do not make. Crime was out of control in socialist, communist, Russia.
Everyone loves to use Russia (and to a lesser extent, China) as the measuring stick of Socialism. However, how does crime in the US compare to crime in Socialist European countries? Is crime even the proper measure for how well an economy/governmental structure performs?
I think that we should have programs for real people in need, and not the lazy-snot people who choose not to learn, choose not to graduate, choose not to work, choose not to make a difference.
Unfortunately, your assumption (and the assumption of many Christians who have been duped by the Republican party) is that generally, poor people are poor because they choose to be. Are there poor people who milk the system? Sure, and the percentages are probably very similar to the number of rich people who milk the system. It works both ways.
Our history and economy is FULL of broke immigrants with NOTHING coming to this country, only to work hard and become VERY successful. There are too many minority politicians and military commanders who had all of the odds stacked against them, that kicked the worlds butt.
No one has denied this, but an individuals inability to be successful does not even remotely mean that they have not diligently tried. The "American dream" does not come true for all and we shouldn't stick our noses up to those who have had tragedy and bad luck hinder them and act as if they could be successful if they just tried harder.
Why can't people stop looking for a hand out when a hand up has been extended?
Not everyone is, and that's the major issue here: the assumption that those who take handouts are usually working the system, when that's just not true. More often than not, people take the handouts because they really do need them. I've personally experienced poverty stricken areas where there were literally no jobs. How is a person supposed to find a job when jobs don't exist? Should we give people in this situation grief for taking aid when it's available?