[CamB]

Sorry - random replies to older posts...

Originally posted by Nathans_Dad
a liberal who admits he has to help the poor and downtrodden because they are genetically inferior...

Its not genetically inferior - its inferior --> and only inasmuch as it applies to earning capacity. I don't think it is genetic - maybe behavioural, but not actually genetic. I dunno - I suppose I separate ambition, hard work and risk taking from smart, but having said that I'm only moderately ambitious, sporadically hardworking, but fortunately quite smart so I earn enough when I do work hard. Am I smart because I have good genes? Or because I had good access to quality education? And good role models?

A lot of people are inferior at making their own and/or other people's lives pleasant. I mean there's a whole philisophical discussion underlying this about what "happy" is anyway. I'm not saying people should deliberately avoid saving for retirement and sponge off the govt, but through a lack of education about the long term consequences of ones actions, there are an awful lot of people who end up in "unworkable" situations wrt retirement.

Originally posted by Howard Agency
Most successful people got where they are with hard work and good planning. It's a simple matter of spending 10% less that you earn and saving those $$. Only take money out of the fund for a crisis or to buy something that makes $$. Easy as pie, even for the Kragen guy.

Depending on where he lives, what his family looks like, and whether he can afford medical and other insurance, saving 10% is quite possibly an unattainable dream.

Originally posted by aways
Life isn't fair. Some people are smart, some aren't, some people are born into wealthy families, some arn't, some people are physically attractive, some aren't. Most people realize that life isn't always "fair", and they do the best they can with what they have. These are usually conservatives. Liberals, on the other hand are usually utopian crybabies, who haven't lost their naive views of universial "equity".

Just for the record - because being called a utopian crybaby pisses me off - I feel its only fair to point out that libertarians are at least as, if not more, naive. So there!

We can't make life "fair", we can only hope to make it "just". Taking person A's hard-earned wealth and giving it to person B, may be "fair", but it isn't "just", or moral. Welfare for the truly needy is a different matter, and a just and moral society should have a safety net for a select few... which shouldn't extend to guys gainfully employed at Kragens, for example.

So what about the corporate welfare for the corporations whose products are being sold at Kragen? You know its happening.

Anyway, who do you see as the select few?