Quote:
Originally Posted by DrPhil
This all makes sense at the individual level. However, the government is here for a reason and platforms differ on why the government exists/what its role is. So who has the "right" to make such subjective determinations of the consequences of people's actions and where does the government step in?
This country is no stranger to social programs and safety nets. There are ways that the government determines who is eligible for these programs. We have given the government the power to make such determinations so it really shouldn't change now. America and global capitalism have always had contradictions and hypocrisies.
It is extremely contradictory and hypocritical for this country to ignore the monster that it/we created and say "well many of you chose to be consumers in this consumer economy. So just live with the consequences of your actions that coincidentally helped build up the most powerful industrialized nation in this global market."
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I disagree. When the government has demonstrated it's unwillingness or inability to govern or regulate effectively, and depending on who you ask actually institutes programs that led to some of the problems, I think we have to decrease the government's power to make those decisions, rather than increase their role. ETA: actually, I'm all over the place on this. I really don't know. I feel mutual contradictory impulses that lenders needed more or different regulation previously, but at the same time I don't trust the government to know what regulation they need now.
And most of our view of government in the US is based on the idea that we are individuals capable of making decisions in our own welfare. The idea that most of us are simply passive witnesses to the creation of some monster is kind of odd. Purchasing a house is not a passive process really.
ETA: If we were talking about a federal package strictly to temporarily strengthen what we usually think of as safety net type programs: food stamps, housing vouchers/public housing, health services for the poor, I don't know that I'd feel as resistant to that. But what we're seeing doesn't seem to have any kind of focus.
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