Might be right. Hope you aint though. Anarchy isn't something I care to experience first hand.
Let me look at the OP again....
Do people deserve health care. Maybe.....how much?
Now, before anyone takes this the wrong way, let me rephrase the question.
Do people deserve food? Maybe. Water, yes. Basic sustenance, yes. A bottle of Dom and a Homar Lobster, not unless they are paying. But, lets back up.
Water, yes. But if they live in a desert, miles from water, should we pay to truck it in?
Food, yes, but again, if they live in an area that can't support life should we truck it in?
Or should we do as Sam Kinison said and send them UHauls?
Where is the line between helping to survive and enabling to leech?
Lets go back to health care.
Someone's in a car accident, get the paramedics in, get them to the ER, save their life if at all possible. Cover every band aid for every skinned knee, provide free aspirin and cough drops, that may be pushing it a bit. Especially if they engage in activities that almost ensure they'll be high risk. I don't know if I should pay for a life long smokers lung cancer treatments...or a cutters hobby. Some times as hard as it is, you have to cut costs and focus on what you can save.
Do people deserve an education?
Yes. But they must make use of what is offered. The United States today offers 12 years of education. There is no reason at all that after 12 years in school, that someone can't read, write, speak English and know enough math to balance a check book and make change. Unless they don't bother to use what is offered to them. I realize that not everyone is a genius, and that some kids need extra help. I don't begrudge them that. However, they must make use of it. If they don't, adding extra years on is a waste of time and money that can be better spent on someone who will use it.
Do people deserve housing.
No. They deserve shelter. My definition of shelter is simple, a place out of the elements where one can be safe, warm and dry. Housing and homes are more elaborate. Shelter to me is a barracks. Housing is an apartment, and a home is a private dwelling. People deserve shelter, but it's not my job to make their house payments for them.
Part of shelter to me includes a clean place to wash up. That's a shower, not a jetted hot tub.
Part of shelter is a place to pee. That's a community rest room, not a bidet with cushy seat and silk TP.
Part of shelter is clean water to both drink and bath. It's not Bottled from Mountain Springs.
Part of shelter is clothing to wear. That's not designer label name brand stuff.
Do people deserve respect?
Only if they deserve it. I have no respect for the life long smoker who won't quit despite having serious health problems, who refuses change, to take care of themselves. I have no respect for the drop out who thinks reading is for chumps. I have no respect for the 3rd generation welfare who is too busy watching Oprah to look for a job. (all 3 are people I know btw)
I have respect for anyone who works hard and smart, who puts in effort, who takes care of themselves, who put forth effort to improve their lot in life. Respect is earned, and it is lost by our actions and non actions.
Now, having said all this, here is the question Arnisidor didn't ask.
Who's responsibility is it to provide the things we deserve?
I see it as my responsibility to provide it to me, through whatever legal means is available to me. For me, I work, I earn an income, and I spend that income on what I deserve. I'm an adult, it's my responsibility to provide for my basic needs. When I was a kid, it was my parents responsibility to provide for my basic needs. Those needs didn't include a tv set, a phone, a computer or a candy bar.
If I live in filth, whose fault is that? Especially if the place wasn't dirty when I got there? My city picks up the trash every week. No reason to collect it inside for months. How many slums are there where if the people in them picked up the trash they could be beautiful? More than a few I'm sure. Ever notice that most slums are also government subsidized?
People don't take care of, or value, that which is just given to them. That's why more lottery winners are broke within a few years.
We are so fixated on 'helping' that we 'help' them right into dependence. That is where the waste comes in. Go buy crab legs at the supermarket...you pick every last bit of meat out of them. At the buffet? You don't try and get every last bit, you just go back for more.
We don't need more housing programs, more welfare, more free anything. We need programs that teach people how to be responsible, how to become self sufficient, how to save and how to invest. That will cure poverty, solve the home crisis, fix the economy and move us forward.
It's not my responsibility to feed you when you are perfectly capable of feeding yourself.
Do that, and we can free up Billions of dollars to help out the people who really really need it, who get lost in the bloated system, and who I really do want to see helped.
I'm not against helping people. I'm against wasting those efforts, doing it illegally, and doing it ineffectively. There's a difference. I really hope I've cleared up any misconceptions my earlier posts have made.
