Originally Posted by SteveZ

Education, health care, immigration, government social spending - these issues have been going on in high gear since FDR. And the result despite a herd of presidents from both parties, and Congresses of all cloth, are:

1. Public education has been on a downward spiral since 1960.
2. Health care costs have gone up higher than anything else (but we ar living longer than ever)
3. Immigration (legal and illegal) has been handled in apathy and funded by pittance since 1946 by both parties, all administrations, and every Congress.
4. Government social spending has continued to rise despite WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf I, Panama, Grenada, Haiti, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan and a couple of other incursions which haven't received press.

And by the way, the quality of life and standard of living has increased in this country despite all of the above, mainly at the expense of the family unit in the quest to have more money to buy extras that greed and good marketing have make desirous..

It's easy to blame "war" for all of the financial problems of the nations. Unfortunately, the "wars" are what keep us free and able to seek greater and greater opportunity to care for others. That's a nasty truism which almost everyone wishes wasn't true.

I used to drive by areas inhabited by Amish. Their anti-war position is legendary, but the only way they can live the way they want is because others have provided them the protection to do so despite their reluctance to participate in their own defense. Again, an ugly truth, but a truth nevertheless.

I am no fan of any war, having participated in the experience firsthand. However, I accept that species homo sapiens is not the logical, sane, and agreeable critter we wish it was. That's why there are about two dozen wars ongoing around the globe today.

There is a fine line separating living in peace and living in tyranny. That line has diplomacy at one end and war at the other. If only diplomacy worked all the time.......