Originally Posted by ijusluvit

On and on it goes - "punish" those who worked so hard to earn their health care benefits, by forcing them to subsidize those who don't have those benefits.

The best words to describe Mr Richards statements are myopic and selfish.

Myopic because he completely ignores the history of man, the rise and fall of civilizations and inevitable destruction of every society which has allowed the greedy and aggressive "haves" to dominate the "have-nots". The larger the gap between the groups and the larger number of have-nots, the sooner the society will be destroyed. Our society is so technologically advanced, yet a significant portion lives in, or on the brink of hopelessness. The hopeless finally demand change in revolutionary, inevitably destructive ways.

Selfish because we are so economically advantaged that we can actually provide health care for everyone without materially changing the economic status of any of the haves, and in the design of the hated Obama administration, without virtually any of the haves even noticing there is a change at all.

We need to remember how many of us come from the hopeless and made it to where we are by some work, but often more by luck of accidental birth as a white, healthy person in a place uncrowded, resource rich and brimming with opportunity. It's harder now to become a have, but we who are so privileged must be visionary enough to see that our assistance to have nots is not a mere tax deduction or "feel good" exercise, but an essential perpetuation of democracy and equality.

And before you who applaud Mr Richards' myopathy and selfishness rail about how we are mortgaging our children's future with this mindless government spending, take another look at history and remember this: 1) WE are still the government (don't just sit there); 2) the deficits are the product of inaction and mistakes made by people you ardently supported, and in some cases, still do; and 3) in our amazing first 200 years we have, at a number of times, been far more insolvent than at present.

Opportunity is the ultimate by-product of a successful democracy. Opportunity isn't just at our fingertips anymore by moving West, or investing $500 to open up that new tin lizzie dealership. We who have so much need to provide the basic foundation for have-nots to become haves.