AnnECUCherry
Member
- Apr 3, 2009
- 302
- 16
- 16
What you are describing is extreme poverty, not your citizen of ordinary means who enjoys the benefits of all those things you seem to believe only wealthy people enjoy. And still even the poorest of those people have the potential to benefit when they find themselves capable of pulling themselves out of their situation. The average person of average means enjoys the benefits of all those things more than the average very wealthy person whom you decry, simply because there are more average people on the bell-curve of wealth. Sadly those people you are most concerned about are usually people with some mental/emotional/drug problem which keeps them in their situation."War on prosperity"?! That is rich!
Since when has paying one's fair share of the cost of maintaining our nation become a "war on prosperity"?
Well-to-do people actually use some government-provided goods and services far more than do poor people. How many poor people need air traffic controllers? Or the US Passport Office? Poor people are also less likely to use federal highways as much as more well-to-do people. Many poor people don't need government-sponsored FDIC protection because they have no bank accounts. Government-provided law enforcement agencies don't have to spend time keeping an eye on poor people's businesses. Poor people are also unlikely to use state and national parks as often as more well-to-do people.
The "citizen of ordinary means" you're describing is the middle-class person. Previously, the middle class could occasionally enjoy at least some of the same things more well-to-do people could on a regular basis.
However, the middle class has been shrinking. There are far fewer people nowadays who can afford to travel and enjoy vacations.
Yet the government continues to provide roadways, waterways, and airways for personal travel -- all paid for in part by people who cannot afford to use them.
Most poorer people don't live in abject poverty. Most poorer people are the working poor, people who barely manage to sustain themselves and their families.