XPost: talk.politics.drugs, talk.politics.guns, alt.current-events.usa   
   XPost: talk.politics.misc, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.politics.usa.republican   
   XPost: alt.politics.bush, alt.law-enforcement   
   From: rsweeney1@comcast.net   
      
   "basilod"  wrote in message   
   news:89wFb.4789$IM3.1732@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net...   
   >   
   > "Randy Sweeney"  wrote in message   
   > news:vMCdnZCF1sp54HuiRVn-sw@comcast.com...   
   > >   
   > > "basilod"  wrote in message news:EHuFb.8802   
   > >   
   > > > > No one starves in the United States.  No one.   
   > > > >   
   > > > Have you ever walked around Manhattan, or have you ever been in its   
   > > subway?   
   > > > Can you also say that "No one is homeless in the United States.  No   
   > one."?   
   > >   
   > > He didn't say that there were no homeless, only that there was no   
   > starvation   
   > > as one can find in the third world.   
   > >   
   > > But... let's talk about WHY the majority of homeless ARE homeless:   
   > > alcoholism, drug abuse, mental illness.   
   > >   
   > > The first two are problems with a lack of personal responsibility and no   
   > > amount of socialism will fix it.   
   > > The latter is due to our desire to pretend that everyone is fine.   
   > >   
   > > So, the majority of homeless will remain, regardless of economic   
   > > opportunity, unless we are willing as a society to re-open the mental   
   > > patient warehouses and place drunks and addicts into coercive rehab   
   and/or   
   > > prison.   
   >   
   > Can you imagine a country in which there are no homeless even though   
   housing   
   > is extremely insufficient, where there are no jobless even though more   
   than   
   > half of the employable population are alcoholics in different degrees,   
   where   
   > 100% of the population has medical and dental coverage, where every woman   
   > gets a paid leave of absence three months before delivery and 6 months   
   after   
   > delivery, where every kid is covered by kindergarten care, where   
   high-school   
   > education is universal and, actually, obligatory; the country in which   
   > college education is not only free, but where college students are   
   receiving   
   > stipends to live on; where each and every elderly is covered by old-age   
   > pension.  No, I am not dreaming and the name of that country is not   
   Utopia.   
   > Such a country actually existed until .... capitalism finally overcame in   
   > it.  That country was called the USSR.  Of course, that country had its   
   own   
   > share of political and economic problems.  Its economy finally fell victim   
   > of the decades long arms race and of the inefficient system of economic   
   > incentives.  Nobody can deny those problems.  However, the fact remains   
   that   
   > in the country, some parts of which have lost almost one third of their   
   > population during WWII and where entire villages and big cities have been   
   > erased from the face of earth, NOBODY was thrown out into the streets, no   
   > matter what mental deficiency they were suffering from.   
   > Of course, now that country has capitalism, some of its old political   
   > problems have been resolved, homelessness is rampant, joblessness is   
   > rampant, drug abuse is rampant (in spite of widespread alcoholism there   
   were   
   > practically no drug addicts in the old Soviet Union), much of the   
   population   
   > cannot afford medical and dental care, the elderly are begging for food in   
   > the streets while a few greediest have become billionaires.   
   > I am sure that after the above two paragraphs Horatio Fudruckerton  will   
   > have no other name for me than "libsoc," but I have only described   
   > realities, past and present.  Why don't we work together to design and to   
   > implement a kind of society which will combine the best features of both   
   > social systems while avoiding the pitfalls of both.  Does such a desire   
   make   
   > me a "libsoc"?   
      
   It could make you incredibly naive and foolish.   
      
   And obviously someone who had never actually travelled to these socialist   
   "paradises" to see the ugly truth.   
      
   Communism and similar utopian visions such as the failed American "great   
   society" welfare state fail because they falsely assume that people will   
   work without personal gain and that rewarding failure doesn't create more of   
   it.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)