[Freeport]

"Why can't those idiots in Washington not see that Socialists policies never work?"

Because they do not see the ramifications; they do not relate one with the other.

I have a friend, we grew up together, that lives in Madison and buys into the big government idea. He doesn't get the connection to the amount of property tax he pays, the falling value of his house, the rising cost of living and unemployment are all intertwined with big government...

He just doesn't get it!

He and his wife, who are good people, also do not understand why combat troops make poor peace keepers and police. I tried to explain that training to kill anything that moves in front of you in the most expeditious manner possible is counter to the job of applying minimal force to defuse or maintain a situation.

They just sat there staring at me...

They didn't understand the basic fundamental difference so eloquently put forward by General Colin Powell at the time of the first Gulf War: "... We are going to cut it off and kill it.", when speaking about Saddam's military. It is alien to them.

Just as Socialism's strangle hold on jobs is an alien concept.

[econjack]

I've had the same experience with colleagues when I was teaching at a Big Ten university. This country romanticizes the poor and I just don't get it. I would ask my friends why they want to lavish all the billions of dollars on the poor in the form of subsidies (food, rent, welfare, etc.) instead of forcing them to work for their funds like they do in Germany. Over there, if you get public assistance, you must show up for a gov’t job every day or you don't get your subsidies. The jobs pay so badly that everyone would rather get off welfare than stay on it.

When I tell my friends I favor doing away for support for the poor, instead leaving charity to private philanthropy or the churches like it used to be, they would ask how I could be so cruel. My response: what have the poor done for me lately? I tell them to make a list of the good things the rich do (e.g., investment, innovation, philanthropy, job creation, support for the arts, etc.) compare to the contributions of the poor (e.g....I've got nothing for this column). Politicians support them because they vote, not for any intrinsic love of them. I'm willing to support retraining, but I think the day of the free handout or 99 weeks of unemployment comp are plain stupid.