I Wish I Could Say This Shit Shocks Me.

[Jesusabdullah]

PSA's. Definitely.

[McDuffies]

I wasn't making any claims as to the superiority of the US system or any need to stick with it - rather the opposite actually. I was simply stating that our current system does not do those things and other systems do. We don't provide coverage for everyone, and that's that. My argument was that certain basics should be covered for children everywhere.

Oh, ok, I just read it differently.

[Rkolter]

Well, if you use my taxes to maintain the public roads, I can get use out of the public roads. If you maintain a park, I can use the park. If you maintain public property, I can use that too. If you fund the military, then I get the safety the military provides.

But can you say "ok, I don't need to go to a park, so cut my taxes for the bit that would go to maintaining the park, and I won't go to it"?
Basically, it would be as if you had two kinds of roads, well-maintained and badly-maintained, and poorer people were only allowed to those poorly-maintained.

Sure I could do without a park. But why would I? For the humanity of helping someone else? That gets back to my original point - I will, and do, gladly help people of my own free will, but I despise being forced to do it, because then it is no longer 'helping'.

And it wouldn't be 'a' park. Reasonable public healthcare in the US would come at a tremendous cost to those people who already pay for health care.

In theory, maybe, yeah, someone born in poor family, provided he breaks his back off studying and working, should get the same education that someone born in richer family gets by default.
In reality things are usually different. Your effort is rarely the only factor that gets into account. After all, don't people spend half of their lifetime repaying their students loan?
Again I'm saying, not the society of equal oportunities.

But our society has never promised equal opportunities - just equal treatment under the law (and yes, that's not perfect either, but the point is, equal opportunity is not a state-granted right). You can't point at things in the US and say, "See that's wrong because it's not equal opportunities for all" when we don't claim to offer that.

I feel you play the hand you're dealt with. And if you have to work extra hard to get out of a situation, well, so be it. I won't feel guilty that my parents worked from nothing to give me a head start.

Second, I worked three jobs while going through college full time. You can dedicate the time, if you put the energy into it.

"If I could do it, anyone can." Nah. If you had to do it, doesn't mean it's right way to treat people. Makes you sound like an old man saying "Bah, cars! When I had to go somewhere, I had to walk barefoot through the snow for miles!" Not the reason for us to do the same thing today.

Now hold on. I'm saying that if you really want something, it is possible to get it via hard work and effort. If that makes me sound like an old man, then so be it. I'm ok with that.

And that's exactly how people should be treated. If you can't afford it right away, don't make it unavailable; make it available if you work hard for it. Yeah, I have college loans. But dammit, I paid my own way through college through sweat and effort, and I won't tolerate people whining that they can't do the same.

Innocent until proven guilty? Is it better solution to deal with such cases on individual basis or is it better to just cut social security for everyone?

Clearly it's better to handle them on individual cases, which is why I am for private donation to charity, and against the government supporting a population of its citizens.

That sounds like there's no poor people in USA... asides from 4.5% who are unemployed because they're lazy...

No no no, you brought up unemployment and minimum wage. We have poor people. It's just not unemployment and minimum wage that keep them poor.

It's not the cold war time anymore, where political and social systems were stakes in a larger scale conflict. It's the time of globalisation where different systems communicate and accept experiences from each others going for the best, most humane results. And USA's current system if far from ideal so it could benefit from willingness to learn from others.

Well, I guess that depends on your definition of ideal. I think we have a reasonable system that needs a few fixes, but not the dramatic overhaul you seem to be suggesting.

Gotta note, though, that I think that social welfare is a completely different issue from medical insurance and public school system. Simply, I think that good health care and education aren't privileges, aren't luxury. They should be a right given by state, and any state that doesn't think so, isn't just humane enough.

See, I see good basic health care to be a right, but one that is fulfilled to a large extent by the system we have in place. To put it another way, my definition of 'basic' is lower than yours.

I see basic education as a right, and think we need to put more money into both improving the quality of that education and in standardizing that education. But I don't see higher education as a 'right'. You should have the right to get it, if you are willing to pay the cost for it. I was.

As for welfare... I like what Ohio did in the late 1990's. They said in essence, "Welfare ends today. We now have workfare. We will pay you to do tasks that we find to be useful for the state. We will also pay you to train you, and we will put you in touch with employers. In your life, you get two years of workfare. Please use it wisely."

[Mvmarcz]

Of course you can appeal... if you can afford it.

What would be interesting is if thousands of non-whites moved there and made the whites into a minority. Then they'd be screaming about racism and being excluded...

This statement bothers me because if whites cry out about racism and discrimination because they are white(and it does happen) people don't care. But even IN areas where the majority is black they can still cry racism for anything they want even if it isn't there.

We can't fire black people who don't show up for work because of the potential of a lawsuit. It won't matter that they never did their job or stole from the company or never came in.

For instance earlier this week at the store my husband works at an African American girl faked her appendix bursting at work so she wouldn't have to be there so she could instead go drinking with friends. She got caught at the bar by a manager who was there in his off time. Normally you'd get fired for that. She was only suspended while HR "investigates". However a white girl who did not show up for 3 shifts and was fired on the spot. There is also an African American girl who never shows up and she has never been fired they just don't schedule her often.

Racism is everywhere on all sides even in Louisiana.
I'm not saying what happened was in any way ok. It's sickening and yes there is still strong racism against blacks in the south. But it's not the only racism occurring.

I grew up with an extremely racist grandfather. I wasn't allowed to have black friends or even speak to black people around him. That didn't stop me I just had to be sneaky about it since I lived with him.
It's a very tricky place to live and I'm sure other southerns here can agree. You have to walk on eggshells anytime anything involving race can even be slightly perceived as occurring.
I don't really know what else I can say I have plenty more examples but I think you get my point.