Posted by alexandra_k on March 7, 2014, at 20:33:28
In reply to Re: psychology of dependency on the government?? » sleepygirl2, posted by SLS on March 6, 2014, at 20:09:45
there are different views on what the role of government should be.
some people think that the role of government is something like caretaker of its citizens. rather like parents are caretakers of their children. they have positive duties to provide for, care, nurture, and develop their citizens.
one might think that governments have duties to provide things like accessible museums and libraries. cheap / free quality education programs (like documentaries, relatively unbiased news, community papers etc). to provide roads so people can travel about and ship their goods and services. parks for recreation. free / subsidised events like fireworks at new years. things like the statue of liberty. perhaps schools for little kids. health for little kids? fire department? police? national defence? army? marines? nasa? bridges? universities so people can research and develop fairer social policies? natural disaster relief? foreign aid? embassies? legal aid for the purposes of innocent until proven guilty?
or perhaps the government doesn't owe its citizens a damn. it shouldn't take taxes from them... it shouldn't have the resources to do things like build roads for people to drive their environment wrecking suv's on...
other people think that the role of government is simply to prevent individuals undermining the social contract. so... to lock up / prevent the reoffending of murderers and thieves and rapists and the like. aside from that to each their own. if i want to be high on drugs all day its my own natural born right -- but it ain't the governments job to give me hand-outs of whatever if i choose to be a loafer.
why would someone choose a life of government hand-outs? it isn't like the government provides such a great quality of life. i mean... figure out the hourly wage for whatever government hand-outs the government does provide... it is worse than working? here it is considerably less than minimum wage. i mean... i'd probably double my weekly income if i worked full time at macdonalds... and... i wouldn't have a bunch of people judging me for being a loafer if i worked full time at macdonalds. and... i'd have the internal satisfaction of knowing i earned my money instead of... being given enough to live merely because in this country we believe people have a right to life and rights entail duties (so, for example, if i have the right, as a law abiding citizen - which i am - to not be shot then the best way for the government to ensure that is to have laws preventing people from carrying guns about their person).
but differences in history...
if i lived in a country where the biggest threat to my lifestyle was the government taking things away from me... i'd want fences and guns and stuff to keep them out. because the government people have lots of guns. in some places at least...
and when the government spends money on things like invading foreign lands rather than providing free health care for under 5's at least... well... i suppose i think i'd do a better job of distributing a portion of my income to public works / charity than the government could do so i'd protest their taking such funds from me...
but really... i hope that the government employs people to crunch the numbers so taht... the budget results in a fairer distribution of tax resources to different things... one that is better for the citizens... than how things would be if every individual allocated however much they wanted wherever they wanted according to their whim...
it is a hard one.
i do think that people who rail against people 'bludging off the government' really haven't tried living with the amount of resources that those people have... i think if you did you'd be more tempted to empathise with their plight (is there hope for a better future? what is there to look forward to?) than to judge them. i kinda think... MORE help is needed. it is a deep pit to dig yourself out...
poster:alexandra_k
thread:1061622
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20131211/msgs/1062009.html