And the Rains came.
What is the Purpose and role of Government?
Standard of living is often based on Wages, Retirement/pension, and Health Care.
I am reminded of Joseph in Egypt. Joseph tells Pharoah that there will be 7 prosperous years followed by 7 years of Famine. So Pharoah (the Government) gathered up the surplus (a tax) and stored the grain, and during the time of Famine Egypt was the Only country with food, and the People (working men and women) were fed (by their government).
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/Joseph.html
Alternative Teabagger ending: And the Pharoah said to Joseph, but shouldn’t the Weak starve? The Goddess Ayn Rand said that only the strong will rise through capitalism. If we feed the Weak during times of Famine will they not stop working and expect us to feed them. And it came to pass that the people of Egypt starrved. The rains came again. And Pharoah asks Joseph why his fields lay fallow. Is there not men who have the skills to bring great harvest. And Joseph tells the Pharoah that many of the population Starved and all that can work the fields are.
Roscoe, in my life I have yet to know anyone who wishes for anyone to starve, nor do I know of anyone who is willing to not feed someone who is hungry. Anyone who needs help should get that help, and I have never known anyone to suggest otherwise. When someone, such as myself speaks against the fraud and the corruption within our social programs, I am speaking of those that actually violate laws by providing false information and documentation that will entitle them to what is reserved for those who truly need the help. Do you know what a “TEABAGGER” is? I assume you are suggesting your scenario as being related to the Tea Party Movement, not those who indulge in the sexual act you represented with the word teabagger. That is insulting by anyone’s standards.
Ha! Loved it.
Excellent analogy.
Some people say that they don’t look to the government for anything, yet when things are hard they blame the government. From gas prices, the stock market or the high price of food, it’s just crazy. Speaking of teabaggers…..
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This is a beautiful analogy Roscoe. I cant wait to see how some conservatives are going to try to spin this lol
So…what you encourage is slavery? To force the slaves to go out a harvest the grain and for the government to confiscate the majority of it to feed the soldiers and the rich. It seems to me…like I remember readng how Moses complained of that very thing?
Maybe that’s they world you want to live in…but it’s not for me. We need to get back to…if you are HEALTHY and refuse to work…you do not eat. We have an obligation to to take care of the Veterans, the Elderly…those who are truly disabled… And we should help people that have come on hard times…even if they are healthy. But the system we have creates lazy people that refuse to even try and better themselves. Why look for a job? Heck..you can draw 155 weeks of unemployment???
I think HEALTHY people that are receiving government assistance should have to do some kind of community service for their benefits. Even if it’s only 10 hours a month…they’d feel better about themselves if they were in someway earning it.
That’s one of the things wrong right now…people have traded their self respect for free bread and cheese from the Gub’ment.
I enjoy it when people demonize the Tea Party…because it shows the movement is really working. Someone commented on my blog recently…that while the Democratic & Republican parties have let the people down…the Tea Party has not let anyone down…and it’s likely the movement will grow stronger and be successful.
If you work…you eat…if you refuse to work…then you don’t eat.
Benjamin Franklin said something like, “Make the poor uncomfortable in their poverty…as nothing will encourage someone to pull up their bootstraps quicker.”
You make a great point, Roscoe!
Here are a few things I thought you might like.
http://americanvaluesnetwork.org/aynrandvsjesusmemo/
Dang good blog.
Almost all people like to work. That is pretty much basic about human beings, and it is very rare that you will find somebody who really doesn’t. Of course, there are a very few people who have gotten rich by exploiting the hard work of other people, but they are an aberration.
Now during the period of Westward expansion, they had a tradition known as the Barn Raising. When a new family was starting a farm, all of the people in the surrounding area, would get together, and help them build a barn. Imagine that? People helping out other people. Yeah, it was a very Socialist thing to do, especially considering that they were more or less on the frontier, and all of these people really were the government. There certainly wasn’t any other government around.
Now there’s something people often forget : in a Democracy, the people ARE the government. The whole idea is government OF the people, BY the people, and FOR the people. So the government’s job is about providing services, like a legal system, roads, schools, a mail service, defense, a currency, quality standards for things people consume and their manufacture, and any other essential services the people decide they want.
The only thing that can go wrong, is when rich and powerful Special Interests buy up politicians, and push through legislation which benefits those Special Interest Lobbies to the detriment of the general public.
Now let’s say that some town has two businesses in it selling the same thing. One is owned by some local guy, and the other is owned by some mega-corporation, (like WalMart). When the locally owned place buys goods to sell, they pick up a few cases of it, while the Big Box Store purchases the same stuff by the millions of cases, and naturally, they get a better price. I’ve met people who once owned their own business, but they couldn’t compete with WalMart, and ended up getting minimum wage as a greeter.
This is how the Capitalist system is devouring the Free Enterprise system.
Doesn’t everybody know you get a better price when you buy in bulk?
During the Eisenhower Presidency, we got our system of superhighways. Back then, Corporations actually paid taxes, along with everybody else. President Eisenhower used government money to build a vast network of modern roadways, which connected the whole country. This enabled people to move around freely, and it helped any business which needed goods transported. It was a big government expense, but darn, it most certainly has paid for itself many, many times over. That just happens to be Socialism.
It couldn’t have been done, without the government pooling the tax money and using it to provide us all with a service. The same thing would happen with Socialized Medicine.. We pool the money in our government to buy in bulk, and get us all a much better price. Some people are saying they don’t want to pay for somebody else’s health care, but with Socialized medicine the price drops, because of the bulk purchase, so we would end up with everybody being covered, AND the total cost would go down
Maybe somebody wants to build their own barn all on their own, alone? Not so sure that would be a very safe barn to walk into. Me? I’ll get together with all my neighbors and help build the new neighbor’s barn for them. After all. we are Americans, and we take care of each other.
Excellent analogy. some folks are too blind to see that.
i enjoyed your blog. agreed. i was so confused about the first comment that i looked on web for sexual meaning for teabagger cause i never heard it used bad. now i know and say that the comment was unnecessary except to inflame. the blog is clearly nothin to do with sex. commenter should be ashamed to go there jus cause he did not like the blog.
Excellent blog Roscoe. The Incas used to do that – they had a system of silos where all the surplus grain was stored for hard times. Everyone looked after each other well, and the people looked after the Earth well. That was until the Spanish conquistadors came and spoiled everything. Gone downhill ever since.
gotta love History…the poor were always taken care of
“the air was corrupted, the plague and contagion began to make itself felt, and the poor, pressed by the famine which struck them always, ate carrion, corpses, dogs … and the filth of animals. This went on a long time, until they began to eat little children.”
Egyptian, cannibalism, famine…multiple pages. http://hubpages.com/hub/famine-of-egypt
“The Inca of Peru also made human sacrifices. As many as 4,000 servants, court officials, favorites, and concubines were killed upon the death of the Inca Huayna Capac in 1527”
Inca, sacrifice…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sacrifice