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Politics : The Trump Presidency -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (1649)	12/10/2016 7:48:16 PM
From: koan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 364465

You seem like a civil person. So I will be glad to explain my thinking. First let's start with my view of protection of our society. For here I rely on history mostly. I spent most of my life studying history. It is really a pretty short period of time only the last 12,000 years or so. But knowing your history gives you a perspective on which societies flourish and which societies provide misery. And history shows us an awful lot of misery, like constant wars one place or another. And women and children and the weak preyed upon. I think about societies in terms of tribes. Because most of civilization we were essentially one tribe or another. So the first couple of things the tribe needs to concentrate on us getting enough food to eat and make sure he that they are protected from enemies. And the tribe has to work together to do that. For example it will support tool makers and doctors because the tribe simply needs them to survive. So the next thing leads us to what structure of society works best to make life happy safe and secure. There are mountains of research that tells us which societies are doing the best and why. So it's important to develop a social structure that is the foundation of those good societies. And there are basics, like education, in my opinion number one need after food and safety. When a society educates it people those educated people make that society strong for example the Japanese and the Jews educate their people and the ancient Greeks. Last you ask what right the people have to a portion of the wealth in the country. They were born here, this is their country, if it does not belong to them then who does it belong to? The thing about using progressive tax rates is that it is a way of society helping those struggling more and that need a little bit to help them by, doing that makes the society stronger. Welfare when needed. One last thing to remember, is that in a tribe, some people are born better at one thing or another. And if they are lucky enough to have been born very strong, the tribe has the right to demand that they help those that were not so lucky. Once again that's what keeps the tribe strong. << Not sure, however, how the rest of your post is consistent with that statement. Perhaps we have different ideas about what "protection" means. My view of protection of our society lies in good stewardship--stewardship of institutions, of resources, of the economy, of our relationship with the outside world. The protection of the individuals in the society lies in the "inalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Everybody in the country has a certain right to the entire wealth of the country, of the tribe. Everyone in the country contributes to the success of the society. Oh, really? How is that? On what basis do you assert that?

To: Lane3 who wrote (1649)	12/10/2016 7:58:55 PM
From: koan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 364465

<< Taking care of people who need help is surely a feature of a successful society but hardly the definitive measure of it.> It is to the degree we want a moral society-lol. << It is much better to have necessary welfare programs and especially make sure that the people in the spring of life, the winter of life, and those who live in the shadows of life are taken care of. That is how you measure the sucess of a society!...Why can't people see that? Because they are not looking at it through your prism? Taking care of people who need help is surely a feature of a successful society but hardly the definitive measure of it. The essence of success would be in the robustness of its economy and the nobility of its culture, which together produce the capacity to take care of the helpless, seems to me. I think you have the cart ahead of the horse. The problem with focusing on welfare programs is that it speaks to distribution but doesn't nothing to foster robustness. Without robustness there is nothing to distribute. There is a gigantic body of knowledge on what makes a society function best for most. Ah, utilitarianism. I prefer protecting the rights of all.