Posted on 04/29/2019 5:49:03 AM PDT by Kaslin
It was in the late 1770s that Americans decided that no price was too high to pay for freedom. After winning freedom and successfully establishing an independent country, our forefathers created a culture that they believed would lead to a free and prosperous nation.
They knew that the United States of America would someday be the leader of a free world and be the country with the most prosperity.
In order for the US to become the largest, most prosperous economy in the world, there were essentially four principles that were followed. The principles were 1) individual freedom, 2) individual responsibility, 3) low rates of taxation and 4) a limited role for government.
These principles allowed Americans to freely pursue their interests and allowed them to keep nearly all of the income they earned. These were powerful incentives for Americans.
By adhering to these principles the US went from the birth of the nation to the largest and most prosperous economy in the world, in about 150 years. The US economy was larger than the economies of countries that were hundreds and in some cases thousands of years older. Most other prosperous countries had millions more people.
Although there were some smaller instances before these, there was a real push to move away from individual responsibility and toward social responsibility beginning in the mid 1930’s when the Social Security Act (SSA) was passed. The SSA provided income security for the elderly. That act meant there were limits to freedom along with higher rates of taxation and more government involvement.
Then in the mid 1960’ Medicare was passed. That program provided health care for the elderly but again reduced individual freedom and individual responsibility. It also raised taxes and increased the involvement of government.
This year, the Federal government will spend $4.4 trillion dollars. That’s $4,400,000,000,000 this year alone. Of that amount, $2.7 trillion, about 60% of the total will be for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. These social responsibility programs remove individual responsibility, increase the rate of taxation and increase the involvement of government.
Since Americans are compassionate and prosperous we recognize a responsibility to the vulnerable among us. For that reason it makes sense to provide for the very young and the very old who are not really in a position to be completely responsible for themselves.
The problem is with the other adults who are able-bodied, yet don’t wish to accept individual responsibility. Many of the proposals from potential presidential candidates offer the opportunity to trade individual freedom and responsibility for social responsibility.
Elizabeth Warren would like to take the responsibility of paying for college away from the student and place it onto society. She wants to remove the individual responsibility of repaying the debt that allowed a student to become a well educated person. She wants the debt to be repaid by society.
Bernie Sanders and others would like to take away an individual’s responsibility to pay for their own health care and replace it with a social responsibility. That program too will limit individual freedom, eliminate individual responsibility, increase the rate of taxation and increase the involvement of government.
These programs are simply wrong for the US. We should be working toward goals exactly opposite of the outcomes that these social responsibility programs would produce. To keep the economy strong and the country prospering, new programs should follow the basic principles that made this county great.
Following these basic principles yields positive results. In 2017 the Trump administration was able to quickly eliminate government regulations and therefore government involvement in many industries. The result was that economic growth shot up from 2% to 3%.
Then for 2018 Congress cut tax rates. The lower rate of taxation allowed the economy to continued to grow at a 3% or more rate. Once the full effect of the tax cut ripples through the economy we will likely see higher growth rates later this year and next.
In the area of individual responsibility there hasn’t been much recent change. It is important that we improve in this area. More individual responsibility will allow the government to become less involved in economic activity. That will tend to help economic growth.
It will also allow for lower rates of taxation. That means an individual will know that if there is success, most of the earnings will end up in the income earners pocket. That provides a real incentive to work hard and produce more.
Individual freedom, individual responsibility, low rates of taxation and a limited roll for government, that’s what made the American economy so great. To continue the greatness, our policies should reflect those values.
Souless and value neutral proposals are inadequate.
My first wife (home with the Lord since 2004) homeschooled with a GED and a determination to keep her children from the devil's influence.
We invested in a lot of ink and paper and Debbie was a school ma'rm !
She found her "group" on the net and about 8 or 10 like minded ladies shared with each other the successes and failures and got their kids through school
Debbie went home with one graduated and two with about 5 years left to go.
You've repaired your car and your refrigerator using youtube.
You've researched nuclear technology and international politics ...
All in your own home and your underwear.
THERE'S NOT A MAMA ON THE PLANET THAT IS NOT QUALIFIED TO TEACH THEIR OWN KIDS !
Look into your local schools .... THEY'RE using the internet for EVERYTHING and buying programs from programming vendors.
Although I agree with you that there is a liberal bias in public schools, I personally think that the biggest problems with education are at the college/university level. I agree entirely with Trump that universities that exhibit clear bias and suppress opposing opinions should lose their public funding (e.g. no research grants, no development grants, etc.). I would also take away their tax-free not-for-profit status and tax ALL income to their endowments.
I strongly suspect most are better qualified than the default public school teachers.
As to affordability, charter schools offer the curriculum materials for "free" (taxpayer pays), so if one can't afford private or parochial brick and mortars, there's that option, and it calls for minimal time and energy from the parents.
There are always excuses for avoiding low priorities, and the minds of their children are low priority for many parents. High priorities include the second income which goes to pay for other high priority things like the house and cars they can't otherwise afford.
It's tough enough to live beyond your means even with the government babysitting for which you trade off your children's minds. But something or someone must be sacrificed, so the kids and their future have to step up.
bump
All the seeds for a “successful” college “experience/education” are planted before kindergarten in the public school system.
That said, you could homeschool through high school and still wind up with indoctrination at the university level.
As a disclaimer, MY kids were drugged and brainwashed.
We drug 'em to church and they had their brains washed with the word of God.
Just like me
and you via whatever "system YOU were reared in.
NONE of us had a say in what happened in our first ten years or so.
You realize insurance is the force that took doctors from trading treatment in exchange for a pig and some eggs to making exorbitant money, right?
On this planet earth the good Lord above has given you something called free will
Only through this precious gift can you make your own decisions that will increase or decrease freedom and prosperity in your life
No government is going to make any decision in your life to benefit you
When you finally come to the realization and determine that this life is about serving others rather than oneself only then will you understand
Ah. The state’s “religious” cult MUST be taught....and believed.
It used to be mostly on the university level HOWEVER these BASTARDS have discovered that they need to reach the kids earlier because if their parents are doing a great job before college it is harder to brainwash these kids!!! NOW they are starting with the teaching of propaganda in K-12 by the time they get to the university level easy peasy their minds are already mush!!!
MY comment is in regards to what they do to children that have no control over themselves.
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