Who is responsible for YOU?

[AllieBaba]

But it is the responsibility of us as humans to provide what we can to those who are without...and to hope that you can be a positive example and have a positive impact on their life.

 

[Care4all]

But it is the responsibility of us as humans to provide what we can to those who are without...and to hope that you can be a positive example and have a positive impact on their life.

absolutely allie....

helping those that are the least among us is helping Christ, according the Christ.....

''whatever you do unto the least among you, you do unto me....''

 

[Avatar4321]

But it is the responsibility of us as humans to provide what we can to those who are without...and to hope that you can be a positive example and have a positive impact on their life.

Yes, individuals. Not governments.

Lets see some real charity in this world. Not this bull crap hand out stuff. Its easy to give away someone elses money. its about time people gave their own.

 

[Agnapostate]

Yes, individuals. Not governments.

Lets see some real charity in this world. Not this bull crap hand out stuff. Its easy to give away someone elses money. its about time people gave their own.

Please, it's a myth that progressive taxation (which redistributes based on simple acknowledgment of the diminishing rate of marginal utility), "steals" wealth from those in the upper class that have earned it. The majority of those in the upper class maintain their wealth due to the state acting as a stabilizing agent within the capitalist economy, as well as an agent that has traditionally protected the wealthy.

 

[Tigerlils13]

To Avatar 4321:
I would be right in assuming this is an honest question, yes? It's one that I would ask and would good reason: That answer I previously gave was extremely idealistic, wasn't it? Haha...
Here's what I truly think:
Yes, there are free riders. There are always going to be free riders. However, most people enjoy standing on their own two feet.
Now, let me clarify what I meant by " spreading my lifestyle."
First off, the way I phrased my previous statement was meant ironically. It’s a common perception in the United States that it is our responsibility to spread democracy to others. That clarified, I did mean what I said: I see it as my duty to spread my happiness to others. Contrary to what you’ve said about this only inviting others to become dependant upon my person, I never did say any such thing, but seeing as I did not state what I meant by the words “spread” and “help,” this can only be my fault.
Never would I imagine to proliferate the notion that it is alright to remain forever dependant on another if it is within a person’s capability to do otherwise. Instead, what I would first do is revolutionize the education system. If we wish to make others less dependent, then we must educate them to be self-reliant. As of now, teachers are much too lenient on their students.
This is, however, is branching into an entirely different argument that does not truly belong under this particular thread. It is only my hope to impress upon you that I do not believe in allowing others to live off my generosity indefinitely, but that I do believe that it’s my responsibility to extend a hand to all of those who are in need of it. If all of us can extend a hand to some one else, then no one will be so overwhelmed by the demands of the needy that they fail to take care of themselves.

 

[manu1959]

But it is the responsibility of us as humans to provide what we can to those who are without...and to hope that you can be a positive example and have a positive impact on their life.

true but our government makes sure we comply and they set a minimum threshld and they give it to who they want not who we would give it to....

like foreign aid.....here is a spread sheet from 01-06....U.S. Foreign Aid Summary

add it up......20 billion a year on average......what do we get for this exactly.....

how about the cost of over 1000 military bases on foreign soil....

The Worldwide Network of US Military Bases

100 billion a year......200 billion......a year.......half of the 400 billion....

that would mean in the past 16 years............

and for helping out around the world we got.............

 

[Gunny]

Yourself, or government?

Da gub'mint , of course. I'm expecting a personal representative of President Obama to show up and wipe my ass any minute now.

 

[BrianH]

But it is the responsibility of us as humans to provide what we can to those who are without...and to hope that you can be a positive example and have a positive impact on their life.

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. "
Thomas Jefferson

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."
Thomas Jefferson

 

[Agnapostate]

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."
Thomas Jefferson

Excellent observation. I wish more would tire of the idleness of the wealthy and the audacity of the state that protects them.

 

[AllieBaba]

But it is the responsibility of us as humans to provide what we can to those who are without...and to hope that you can be a positive example and have a positive impact on their life.

"I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. "
Thomas Jefferson

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."
Thomas Jefferson

Of course I was referring to VOLUNTARY charity.

I have no use for the government forcing us to share.

 

[AllieBaba]

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."
Thomas Jefferson

Excellent observation. I wish more would tire of the idleness of the wealthy and the audacity of the state that protects them.

Fuck you. Members of my family are wealthy and they're wealthy because they fucking earned it. My sister started college at age 16 and works her ass off to this day.

Take your doublespeak and shove it up your ass.

 

[Care4all]

you must take care of yourself, your family unit first...under any circumstance....this is your own responsibility, then after that, is debatable on what one does and how they do it, to help others with much much less....imo

 

[Zoomie1980]

I knew I shouldn't have added that last paragragh... it's makes it too difficult for people to answer the original question... so let me remove the paragraph and just ask the question.... It shouldn't be that hard of a question to answer but maybe it is for some.....sad.

Removing the last paragraph so dumbs down the question as to make it meaningless.

The complex economic reality that we live with is not condusive to that sort to black/white thinking.

It's not the 18th century, amigo. W

e're not living in a land where we can just head out to the wilderness and live lives of deperate self sufficiency and subsistence farming.

In fact people couldn't even really do that then, either. They brought the benefits of civilization with them, and they depended on civilization to keep them going even when they lived far outside the confines of civil society, too.

Trappers and traders still brought their goods to society so they could buy the stuff they needed to survive the wilderness.

It's a lovely myth that you believe in, of course, about individualism and self reliance, but it was a myth then for the majority of people, and its even more a myth now.

You are no more completely in control of you life than any welfare mother.

Neither, for that matter, is Bill Gates.

Civilization just doesn't work in that simplistic way your world view is informing you it does.

I am in complete control over my life. Which is why I am in the economic position I am in....and you are in yours....

 

[Zoomie1980]

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."
Thomas Jefferson

Excellent observation. I wish more would tire of the idleness of the wealthy and the audacity of the state that protects them.

I know a lot of wealthy people. They are, to a person, the hardest working people I have known. Many to the point of failed marriages and dysfunctional families....sacrificed....for work and wealth.

 

[AllieBaba]

Tell them to get off their fat asses and send money to Agna, so he can buy more child slaves. After all, they're morally reprehensible.

 

[PubliusInfinitum]

what is ironic as fuck about this thread is that I'd bet money, marbles and chalk that the very people who are crying about total self reliance also claim to be christians. Clearly, they are not their brother's keeper.

Yet another ad populum farce... Year after year Christian Coservatives strip the left of any potential for this rant to find validity as the charitable donations are tallied with CC outstripping the left time and time again... yet they can't seem to resist the idiocy.

Suffice it to say, Keeping my brother does not include paying him to sit on my couch and empty by fridge.

 

[PubliusInfinitum]

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not."
Thomas Jefferson

Excellent observation. I wish more would tire of the idleness of the wealthy and the audacity of the state that protects them.

ROFLMNAO...

Oh GOD Now THAT'S PRECIOUS... The Wealthy are idle and the government is protecting them?

While a sliverous minority of those you, the dirty feet freaks, might consider wealthy, may appear to you to be idle, the notion is a misnomer... as the VAST MAJORITY of that group work the smelly drealock crowd INTO THE GROUND... which is the method by which they obtained their wealth.

And what pray tell is the government protecting them from exactly... I'd wager you'd erroneously consider me wealthy and should your herd try to offend my mansion it would be YOU that would be crying about the government failure to protect you... in the unlikely event that you remained capable of crying.

 

[Agnapostate]

Fuck you. Members of my family are wealthy and they're wealthy because they fucking earned it. My sister started college at age 16 and works her ass off to this day.

Take your doublespeak and shove it up your ass.

I know a lot of wealthy people. They are, to a person, the hardest working people I have known. Many to the point of failed marriages and dysfunctional families....sacrificed....for work and wealth.

ROFLMNAO...

Oh GOD Now THAT'S PRECIOUS... The Wealthy are idle and the government is protecting them?

While a sliverous minority of those you, the dirty feet freaks, might consider wealthy, may appear to you to be idle, the notion is a misnomer... as the VAST MAJORITY of that group work the smelly drealock crowd INTO THE GROUND... which is the method by which they obtained their wealth.

And what pray tell is the government protecting them from exactly... I'd wager you'd erroneously consider me wealthy and should your herd try to offend my mansion it would be YOU that would be crying about the government failure to protect you... in the unlikely event that you remained capable of crying.

I must have provoked the delusional in some unpleasant way if the dogs are barking. Contrary to your primitive conceptions of "free markets," those at the highest pinnacle of society are often there as a result of government intervention and as a result of generations of toil by the working classes. I would recommend having a look at Unjust Deserts: How The Rich Are Taking Our Common Inheritance and Why We Should Take It Back.

Riddled with references to economists John Stuart Mill and Adam Smith, this book reads more like an academic treatise than an appeal aimed at the general public. Alperovitz (America Beyond Capitalism) and Daly (God and the Welfare State) make the provocative argument that if today's worker is more productive and his methods are more extensive, it's due to the accumulation of hundreds of years of work done by previous generations. Modern engineers, for example, are only more productive because they build on the design problems solved during the past century. Since a society shares a history, the authors contend, we should all reap the benefits of this progress and the wealth accumulated by it; the reality, of course, is a grave disparity in wealth and resources.

What is there that can explain this to you? Your "free market" does not exist, which is why capitalist economies are plagued by imperfect contracting.

Tell them to get off their fat asses and send money to Agna, so he can buy more child slaves. After all, they're morally reprehensible.

What obscene idiocy I encounter from you on a daily basis. I've supported numerous facets of youth liberation, as representatives of the premier youth rights groups and individuals in this entire country would tell you if you had any basis for contact with them whatsoever. But you ramble and blather on with imbecilic babbling and moronic slanders. They repulse me only because of their inanity, and their inaccuracy has the result of adding insult to injury.

 

[Bern80]

you must take care of yourself, your family unit first...under any circumstance....this is your own responsibility, then after that, is debatable on what one does and how they do it, to help others with much much less....imo

since you and I usually come down on opposite sides of most issues I am interested in your honest answer to the following:

Many here have claimed that it is the obligation of every business to provide every worker a basic standard of living. I am not saying that is what you believe, but does such a position not contradict the one you have given here? If you maintain that you must take care of yourself and your family, what do you say to those perhaps further left that claim your employer (via a government mandate) take care of you in some facet above and beyond what your skills warrant?

 

[editec]

I knew I shouldn't have added that last paragragh... it's makes it too difficult for people to answer the original question... so let me remove the paragraph and just ask the question.... It shouldn't be that hard of a question to answer but maybe it is for some.....sad.

Removing the last paragraph so dumbs down the question as to make it meaningless.

The complex economic reality that we live with is not condusive to that sort to black/white thinking.

It's not the 18th century, amigo. W

e're not living in a land where we can just head out to the wilderness and live lives of deperate self sufficiency and subsistence farming.

In fact people couldn't even really do that then, either. They brought the benefits of civilization with them, and they depended on civilization to keep them going even when they lived far outside the confines of civil society, too.

Trappers and traders still brought their goods to society so they could buy the stuff they needed to survive the wilderness.

It's a lovely myth that you believe in, of course, about individualism and self reliance, but it was a myth then for the majority of people, and its even more a myth now.

You are no more completely in control of you life than any welfare mother.

Neither, for that matter, is Bill Gates.

Civilization just doesn't work in that simplistic way your world view is informing you it does.

Yeah, okay, so we're all dependent on each other socially. Big whoop.

Reality is a rather "big whoop", I agree.

That doesn't mean we are incapable of supporting ourselves in today's world.

Never said it did.

I certainly am able to do so.

I am sure we're all terribly impressed.

The government is not responsible for me and was never designed to be responsible for anyone.

The government (when it is working) is responsible TO everyone, not FOR everyone.

The government exists to make it possible for people to pursue life, liberty and happiness, period.

Agreed

Not to provide those things to them, or to make sure everyone has those things and a big screen tv. Just to be free to pursue them if they have the wherewithal to do so.

Agreed.

Case in point. I had an angry woman talking to me today because her 25 year old daughter lost her job, has moved home, and wants benefits. Mom and dad own a home in Florida, they're building a new home, they own their own property, and they're pissed off that I ask them what their income is. "The government needs to help her!" was what the mother said to me. "She's done everything right, if she was pregnant or an illegal you'd help her...."

What does the fact that some people are nuts have to do with anything?

Well duh. That's because the welfare programs were DEVELOPED for indigents and destitute single mothers whose husbands were either dead or had abandoned them. Sorry, that's who the programs focus on. Desperate people with children, and the homeless. It isn't to keep mom and dad from having to spend $200 a month on food for their daughter because they want leaded glass windows on their estate.

True. What's your point?

So no, the government isn't responsible for anyone. We are responsible for ourselves, and if you think you aren't you're doing yourself a terrible disservice.

Are you so desperate to be heard that you'll continue to create a straw man and call it editec?

Apparently you are.

Well maybe this will help, then

You have officially beaten up the strawman's arguments.

Goooooooooooooooooooooo YOU!