I've always thought most people want to do the right thing. I personally won't use the term liberal and conservative anymore. I don't think they mean much and they don't address specific issues or solutions.
Lacking values, people don't have the capital they need to start the business like your Dad did. If you whip a horse, eventually it will simply just shy from everything. I think a lot of people are so whipped by their situation, that they simply don't care about anything. I can't say I'd car much about living in subsidized housing. I'm not sure where your Dad got his values, but they sound good. The people's whose toilets he fixed, well they sound not so good. I had some punk rockers rip through walls above my apartment in the 80's. Didn't like their values either.
Out of every group, there will be the winners and losers. But to live in a society full of so many losers makes me wonder where we are heading. If that is increasing on average, then what?
I guess a lot also depends upon what you consider "criminal". We have built an industry about criminalizing drugs. Makes for good photo ops, lots of shiny helicopters to fly around and very full prisons. Lots of people can get sanctimonious about something that almost anyone 30-60 years old has done, but most have not been caught doing.
Is is better to build prisons or schools? If all we are paying for is our sense of superiority over "those damn criminals", many of whom did the same things as "us" or people we know, then we are not getting our money's worth, IMO. Our infrastructure is in decay and stuff you used to get almost for free, like education, is getting more and more expensive, now pretty much only attainable by the rich or those willing to load up debt.
This is not a good model for an industrialized country. |
