>>Any sort of societal ills has their cause. No amount of gov regulation, no matter how well-intended, will ease these ills.<<
Given the grammar in your comment, I’m inclined to wonder if I’m arguing with a 5th grader, or a high school dropout, but taking you seriously, what you’re saying is patent nonsense.
You’re arguing for virtual anarchy. Houses of prostitution on every block? Why not? Every manner of drug usage legalized? Sure, go for it. Marriages? Why bother? Just drop all the laws on marriage. You want three wives, a man, a teenage girl and a 10-year old boy for your partners, all living happily in a house next to mine? Great idea.
Child abuse is, how do you put it, one of those “societal ills.” You don’t want a law prohibiting it? A law that puts the abusers away, or somehow keeps them from committing further abuse? How about spousal abuse? Rape? That’s a societal ill. Think removing all government regulations regarding rape wouldn’t have any negative effect at all? None? Or are you a supporter of NAMBLA, perhaps? If so, please let me know, so I quit wasting my time responding to you.
You honestly think you can sit on your little moral island, raise your kids to do the “right thing” and win in that environment? Good luck. “All will fall in place,” you say. Right.
And drop the “Saint” Rick, please. Remember, first they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, they you win. You’ve fallen into the trap of thinking you’re winning, but you’re only at step two, and you look ridiculous spouting “St. Rick”, as does everyone else doing it. It just demonstrates lack of a rational argument, and in the end, rational argument prevails, because it’s predictive of what is likely to happen.
This is why liberals, and libertarians too, always lose in the end. What their opponents say will happen if you get your way does, in fact, eventually happen, and saner people either regain control, or the country falls apart and those same liberals and libertarians find themselves ruled by a despot, sometimes even one they voted into power. Eventually, a populist ruler promises to fix the mess, and the people succumb, desperate for someone to finally lead. At that point, poor choices usually result.
Wow, no need to be so angry. (Now I sound like Rromney talking to Santorum!)
No one says gov shouldn’t have laws and enforce them. Surely gov can punish criminals and keep them out of the way to protect law-abiding citizens. However, punishment by gov does not change human behavior. Human behavior is learned from birth. Family upbringing shapes the child. When the children are brought up to be responsible citizens, there will be less need for the gov-imposed punishment or assistance or ‘preaching’.
I agree with Santorum that family is the most important. Going back to the good old traditional family units will do wonder. With more and more broken families, ‘societal ills’ multiply. The ‘compassionate’ government steps in to help, or punish or ‘teach’ people by imposing what the politicians think is the best for them. Is that the best way to influence human behavior or to restore law and order?
I am simply saying it starts with the family. Big gov can’t help. Some big gov politician should really stop trying to regulate human behavior by imposing their own ideas of what is good or bad.