Everything people truly want and need can be provided without government coercion--and the market is far better at providing it. For instance, Yugo vs. Toyota. Bread lines (or starvation) vs. any American supermarket. Not a tough choice, one would think.
The main reason that FreeRepublic is so popular is based on the misnomer that politics will solve the problem when in fact politics and government is the problem. The solution is creative business and science integration with honest, free market actions.
The difference between not having a government to inflict power and having one, is literally the difference between Adolph Hitler as a nearly-insane, anti-Semitic housepainter, and Adolph Hitler as a nearly-insane, anti-Semitic German Chancellor. It's the difference between Charles Manson as the murderer of a handful, and Pol Pot as the murderer of perhaps two million.
Good analogous juxtaposition.
The socialist (or Democrat, or compassionate conservative, or Green, or whatnot) believes that where there is need, government must provide. In turn, this requires that government grow ever-larger, and for an obvious reason: We care about people. We care about children and the sick and the elderly. We care about endangered species. We care about the environment. We care about the poor.
Yeah right, the parasitical politicians and self-serving bureaucrats care so much that they've created so many laws and regulations that virtually every person is a criminal for they have broken at least one and probably several of those compassionate laws. The problem is, why then has society not run head long into destruction with all of us criminals on the lose?
John Stossel made a powerful point on one of his specials. I can't describe it with near the impact that Stossel did, but here goes anyways...
There was a highly effective life-saving drug that the FDA held off the market despite it being successful used in several European countries. Some kind of bureaucratic red-tape/snafu kept the drug from being available in United States.
Stossel continues, last year seven thousand peopled died from "XX". Doesn't that mean that the FDA killed seven thousand Americans last year?