Quote:
Originally Posted by Taltarzac725
That's an interesting anaolgy except that you cannot really field a strong military without a strong central government. You also need one for uniform transportation like roads, canals, and railroads; homeland security; computer security; patent and copyright enforcement; immigration; epidemic control; food and medicine safety; banking, etc.
|
All of the above are things that individuals can't do for themselves so I'm not suggesting that we do away with them. But there are many government programs for things that individuals can and should do for themselves. For example, Social Security (saving for retirement), Medicare, food stamps, farm subsidies and unemployment compensation.
And here's a big one: Each person should know how to take care of their health (eat a healthy diet and soforth) so they can lower their risk of becoming a burden on the rest of us. This one is a big one because health care costs could perhaps be lowered by about a trillion dollars per year. U.S. healthcare expenditures were 2.6 trillion in 2010.
When George W. Bush was President, there was a shortage of able bodied young-men wanting to join the military. 30% of those trying to join were rejected because of being overweight. Talk about the nation becoming weaker! So what did they have to do to come up with more recruits? They had to offer a $10,000 sign-up bonus. I think it's a good example of national health issues leading to economic issues. The country is going broke as people get fatter and sicker and no one is offering any solutions.