So said my cousin, if not in so many words, a bright and enjoyable young man. My answer:
Chris, the 'right' is folks who think it's right to enforce their vision of good/bad at gunpoint using the State. The 'left' is folks who think it's right to enforce their vision of good/bad at gunpoint using the State. I want to be clear - I can't speak for either of those groups. I believe using the coercive power of the State is wrong, morally and pragmatically (based on outcomes).
No room to really make a case here - but yes, I think the govt coercive monopoly on schools is failing miserably and there are far, far better alternatives. The coercive government monopoly looks good only when compared to nothing. The limits placed on the children of the poor by the present public education system makes the whole system a crime agaist humanity - and god bless the poor souls working within that system who actually care about the kids.
Social security is untenable. The math just can't work. The politicians stole the money to spend on re-election. We are left with an IOU to ourselves. It's a scheme Enron or Maddof would be proud of - except at least those two had to convince people to give them their money. SSA takes it at gunpoint. http://apolloswabbie.blogspot.com/2009/10/madoff-asking-unaskable.html
My question would be, for those who believe that it IS right to try to create good outcomes via coercion through the State: what's the least possible coercion that must be employed to get the outcome you value? Best answer I've seen to date for social security, for example, is "In Our Hands": http://www.nationalreview.com/interrogatory/qa200603270732.asp
Medicare is even more unsustainable - http://reason.com/archives/2003/12/29/ride-the-death-spiral .
Note the date - after the economic downturn the numbers are just looking WORSE. Another way to look at the numbers: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-05-28-federal-budget_N.htm - you owe a half million dollars for all of fiscal promises made on your behalf. Who can possibly benefit from that kind of profligate spending of other people's money?
Medicare/medicaid - estimates vary from 10-40% fraud waste and abuse - so is it about compassion? Is it even remotely related to compassion or is it just another bureacratic apparautus making efforts in name only while destroying wealth and hurting every citizen? MC/VISA has a fraud rate under 1%. Show me effective M/M reform and I would have some reason to trust you could manage HC reform in general. I'll hold my breath while you fix the M/M.
The money that is destroyed in these programs, the brakes that are affixed to economic growth, the reduction in money available to invest/create jobs, the mal-incentives which mis-direct resources to undesirable outcomes ... this whole thing is a crime and by comparison, the LT Gov's comments are just prattle. Your focus is on the distraction of the day while ignoring the pickpocket.
The rich can escape the consequences of an over-bearing govt, the poor are fixed in place by it, their opportunity to change their own or their children's circumstance is limited, and as is found in France for example, the further the govt gets into the affairs of the individual the less possible it is for anyone to move out of poverty.
Abomination.
