On Sun, 29 Apr 2007 17:06:52 GMT, kontiki
wrote in :

Larry Dighera wrote:



Wouldn't you characterize streets awash in homeless retirees a burden
on society?


Again Larry, if you were to be intellectually honest you would find
that 'homeless' people are largely that way because of decisions
they have (or have not) made.

Apparently I'm not nearly as familiar with what the homeless do as you
must be to make that statement, but those homeless that I have seen,
appear to be _innately_ unemployable to me.

It is not my responsibility to comphensate [sic] others for their failure
to be responsible.

That seems like a reasonable statement. But it isn't humane to just
let them freeze to death in the streets. Surly our great nation is
better than that, isn't it?

For some reason you do... and so does socialistic governments.

I don't think it is our _responsibility_, but I do think caring for
the unemployable and/or cripples is desirable if not beneficial to
society by reducing crime, making the streets safer and more pleasant,
if not down right ennobling for our nation. And I believe that paying
ahead for the inevitable is prudent.

THIS is where we differ.

For example, if I, as a respinsible parent were confronted by my
child wanting to quit school, I would let them do it only if they
signed a legal document that stated they could make no claim
against me for future benefits. They voluntarily decided to
SQUANDER a free education for themsleves and I do not feel
responsible for the consequences of their actions.

While I might not agree with that, I can understand your reasoning in
arriving at that decision.

This is never required of welfare recipients in this country...
but it should.

Even if it were, they'd just not honor such a document, and we'd be
faced with a lot of frozen corpuses and streets that would be even
less safe to walk than we are currently. The problem of what to do
with cripples isn't going to go away by getting them to sign a
contract.

Most of the ones I see drive a car (albeit an old
gas guzzler [which we subsidize]) and have a cell phone and several
children, more than likely cable or satellite TV etc. etc. They
are NOT poor.

Welfare is a difficult issue. I don't pretend to have a solution to
the welfare issue.


People who live on the street CHOOSE that life Larry.

Some may. Some may also be so mentally unstable as to be forced into
homelessness. It's probably not fair to intimate that ALL street
people are capable of joining the majority of society.

How can you
argue that they can not find work when ILLEGALS who can't even speak
english risk their lives to cross a border to come here work?

If they are crazy, would you employ them?

I'm sorry, but your bleeding heart liberal-socialist ideas do NOT
work and do NOT hold water. They are not rationally justifiable.


Our opinions differ.

-----
"In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as
possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other."

-Voltaire (1764)



The true Axis Of Evil in America is our genius at marketing
coupled with the stupidity of our people. -- Bill Maher