Is that really government’s responsibility? In my opinion government’s responsibility is in providing an infrastructure for economic success. Education, police, fire, roads, free trade, incentives for investment and entrepreneurship, and finally provide for foreign relations. Why should the government look after anyone? That should be on the shoulders of the individual. The individual should be responsible to make sure that they have enough, not government. Just like it is the individual’s responsibility to make sure that government doesn’t screw them. If you don’t like what is happening then get involved. Form a group or coalition and take action. Let the government know that what they do is not okay.

Joel

Politicians are who they are supposed to be and I think that we expect them to be different or to behave differently. Perhaps the issue is that we give politicians too much power and the people too little power. Why is there a profession of politicians? Would it not make more sense to have citizens serve in government for one “term” understanding that they will then go back to their livelihoods when they have finished their service? Perhaps or perhaps not – either way, that is not the world we live in. With regards to the “rights” you mention “equal health care, enough to eat, and housing for everyone”. How can any health care ever be equal? Who would define that equality? It seems more like an ideal that everyone knows is impossible to attain but one that everyone likes to say we should strive for. Why not strive for each individual to learn as much as they can about their own bodies and get back some of the knowledge that continues to be lost in the quest for “equal” health care coverage from pharmaceutical companies. We used to know that the berries and leaves of Hawthorn trees have proven to be effective against high blood pressure and other ailments of the heart. Given that they live for 400 years, it would seem that having one in your backyard would be sensible if you suffer from high blood pressure but that knowledge is lost. When did we stop teaching men to fish and relying on politicians to provide to us with that which we can provide for ourselves? Same with enough to eat, if we are willing to work with what we have, does it matter if we are eating the same thing every day? Finally housing, Native Americans in the United States learned to build homes with the skin of animals and tree bark, are these resources lacking or is the knowledge lost? We, I think need to spend a little less time being angry, a little less time expecting a rock to be anything other than an rock and a little more time learning to fish.

Suki