Of such youngsters he says, "as a society, we fail them long before they fail us.”
Whoa! Just when did "society" make the decisions and engage in the actions that have led to this teenager being in the bad situation he is in? And just when did "society" acquire either the omniscience or the omnipotence to prevent it?
When the left says "society" they usually mean government. That is apparently what "society" means in this case, for Kristof laments that this teenager is "the kind of person whom America's presidential candidates just don't talk about.”
SOME writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.. . . so the American Revolution was about the difference between “society” and “government.” Which is precisely the distinction which “the political left” consistently seeks to abolish, by using the word “society” when they mean nothing other than government.Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one: for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries BY A GOVERNMENT, which we might expect in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built upon the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case advises him, out of two evils to choose the least. Wherefore, security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others. - Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776)
Well said, and “the political left” knows full well big government (socialism) has never worked but it deters their goals not in the least.