[LowCountryJoe]

Great post! Look, I almost hate to quote such a part of the article because it sound so cold-hearted. But the truth is, I believe that markets work and it's government that fails. I lot can be done for the poor and the disadvantaged through the private sector. The citizens of the United States are very charitable and there are many charities (some that are actually run effectively because they're not overly bureaucratic).

Foe me, this issue comes down to the paternalists versus the individual. I am no anarchist -- there has to be some government to preserve order -- but the individual is being overlooked more and more and personal responsibility observed less and less. If people, particularly paternalists, actually believe that the culture is degenerating, applying statist solutions is going to exacerbate the problem.

[kindred]

[applying statist solutions is going to exacerbate the problem.]

Interesting, but what are statist solutions?

[yatros from flatwater]

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

-- C.S. Lewis

[Matchett-PI]

"..this issue comes down to the paternalists versus the individual."

Paternalism is attractive to adults in primitive societies that don't have the emotional / physical resources to be able to survive as a non-slave outside a collective (group/commune/nanny-state)

That we have degenerated to the point that we have such a large number of primitive mentalities in the one country in the history of the world which was FOUNDED BY, OF, and FOR individuals, is a testimony to the success the 'RAT party has had in incrementally taking the unwary backward into slavery (dependency) once again.

Our job is to turn that around. bttt