Close Topic Options

Government Spending

"It is a tragic mix-up when the United States spends $500,000 for every enemy soldier killed, and only $53 annually on the victims of poverty"
-- Martin Luther King, Jr: 1929-1968

Do you agree?

Spending Government

Ah, this gets to the heart of all my thoughts concerning government. I have had to let it stew in my mind for a day or so before trying to answer.

As much as I admire Martin Luther King, Jr., he admired socialist principles, including the redistribution of wealth through government programs. He accomplished a lot of things, a lot of good things.

However, I think that the main purpose of government is national security. I am not a fan of welfare programs in general.

And let's not disregard the way he stated it. "and only $53 annually on victims of poverty." Victims of poverty? What victims? Poverty is now a force or person, who takes advantage of people, according to this quote.

But that isn't so. Despite 40 years of intense, extremely expensive social programs, there are just as many people in the "poverty" level as ever. It is a state of mind. Government has gotten involved in, and now controls, what was once the realm of private charities and churches. It has also taken over the role of fathers, as provider for the families.

We should be spending thousands of dollars for each enemy killed in war. We need to have the best, most effective military possible (as does each country). And military capability costs money.

What is sad is that social welfare programs are probably just as expensive, and far less efficient.

Government Spending History & Civil Business Politics

CHARITIES ARE FOR SUCKERS

NEW YORK--Hurricane Katrina has prompted Americans to donate more than $700 million to charity, reports the Chronicle of Philanthropy. So many suckers, so little foresight.

Government has been shirking its basic responsibilities since the '80s, when
Ronald Reagan sold us his belief that the sick, poor and unlucky should no longer count on "big government" to help them, but should rather live and die at the whim of contributors to private charities. The Katrina disaster, whose total damage estimate has risen from $100 to $125 billion, marks the culmination of Reagan's privatization of despair.
Ref. https://news.yahoo.com/s/ucru/20050914/cm_u...HBhBHNlYwM5NjQ-