What should a community/nation/state (government) provide for citizens?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by henry quirk

I'm thinkin' more of the 'cost' of 'from each, according to ability; to each, according to need'. No doubt some folks will gladly pay up for such a deal, thin-blooded creatures thay are, happy to have 'need' satisfied.

Although it weebled and wobbled for 200 years, our government pretty much worked that way until Reagan. Then "We the People" stopped participating and let special interests gobble congress.

Let's not forget, however, about the (slave) labor required to satisfy all that 'need'. As Glatt sez, 'people time and time again act in a greedy way to get ahead at the expense of society'. The greedy rich, the greedy poor, both want the same thing: that which doesn't belong to them.

In places like Scandinavia they pay around half their pay in taxes. Recoil in horror, make the sign of the cross, wear garlic, load the guns Ma.
But wait, what do they get for that exorbitant fee? Can you say everything, boys and girls? Everything they need plus the lack of worry about ever needing. Maybe that's a good deal.

Put your 'faith' in 'you', is my advice (or squander it on 'finer clay' [if you can find it]).

If I put my faith in me I will have to settle for less because even my best efforts are a pisshole in a snowbank compared to the power of the collective we.