Typically condescending and self-righteous response from you. I would argue that OUR poor people have a lot more money than other country's poor people and they can spend that money on all the shitty food they want. Mass famine and uncontrollable disease isn't the crux of the problem in the States. Preventable "diseases" and being a little smarter IS. You fault our government....I fault the people. I don't feel it's the government's responsibility to hold our hand every step of the way. Then again, some people need their hand held and if they aren't spoon fed they'll just end up costing us all more money.

It's all a matter of point-of-view. I applaud your idealistic view of both our country, and the world. I hope you still feel this way when your 30 and beyond.

if the govt should protect the populace from things such as smoking or overeating, shouldnt it also protect from speding too much time playing online games?

i know it sounds like a snide rub, but im partially honest here. i dont want the govt telling me what i can/cannot do online. and i dont want the govt telling me what i can/cannot eat/smoke. what i DONT want the govt to do is reward people who make stupid decisions.

and thats where i side more with thrax prolly.

We're all going to start arguing about political viewpoints, so the conversation is going to be counter-productive.

Conservatives want more personal freedom and less government power.

Liberals want more government intervention, oversight, and regulation.

(Notice I didn't include "less personal freedom" on my second statement for fear that it would hurt your liberal feelings. However, this is what you would prefer. We just don't talk about it in public.)

I don't think anyone disagrees with that Monte, I was just following thraxle's line of reasoning even though me and thraxle don't see eye to eye on a lot of things both of our perspectives eventually lend themselves to the same conclusion, which is a revision of the health care system.

In my opinion people that make the right decisions should be rewarded, but people that make the wrong decisions shouldn't be severely punished. They should be educated and afforded the opportunities to make right what they did wrong in the past.

That is my opinion and it's the fundamental difference between being a populist and being content with our current statist system.

maybe im too naive, but i figure if you simply offer the reward for good decision-making, that implicitly punishes the poor decision-makers.

educating the masses? sure. giving them free-handouts? notsomuch.

That's what we're all about Joe.......handouts. Haven't you heard that entitlements are kiling this nation financially?

Common misconception thraxle, to be conservative you actually have to desire less personal freedom.

Conservatives are for social controls and economic deregulation

Liberals are for personal freedom and economic regular

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_spectrum#Nolan:_economic_freedom.2C_personal_freedom

Then I guess you're a conservative. Who knew?

Yes Rob the biggest parts of the budget are handouts... to corporations. The military-industrial complex is about 20% of our budget and the handouts to the health insurance companies are about 25%.

Discretionary spending is like 15%.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget

Wikipedia is accurate up to 2010 but my numbers on spending this year are correct

Let's be fair, both the right and the left have things they want to control. The federal government is far more concerned with amassing power over time than actually protecting the constitution.