You asked me to sell you on a better plan and I tried to do so, so this is my last contribution.
Agree, drug laws are archaic and badly in need of reform.
True, a poor person in the US is better off than a poor person in, say, Somalia. So what? How destitute does a poor person have to be to satisfy you that they are not living soft? It's like you tell a rape victim you were only raped by one man, some women are raped by ten men, so shut up and stop crying, bitch.
Yes, animals "work" in the sense they need to feed themselves, and, in some cases, their offspring. But animals don't work on plantations or in factories, they don't toil while others sip daiquiris on the veranda. Once they are fed, they stop "work" until they need to eat again. There are no animal slavemasters, kings, feudal lords, billionaires. The nearest thing in animal world are the drones in social insects, males who do no work but exist solely to fertilize the queen. Insects have no choice. We do. The ones who live soft off other people's work aren't poor people.
You claim you are not equating poverty and bad choices, but you want to scrutinize how poor people spend their money. Why not assess how well the rich spent what they got in their trillion dollar tax cut, especially since Trump has promised an even bigger tax cut for the rich? Why not prohibit them from using their tax cut, that we all pay for, on safari hunting where very rich Westerners pay desperately poor countries to slaughter endangered animals? Why not demand their new yachts be energy efficient?
We have always had wealth inequality in this country but it has exploded in the last 40 years or so, starting with Reagan era tax cut that heavily favored the wealthy, and increasing exponentially ever since. The idea that the very wealthy should pay their fair share suddenly became an outrage and to this day we are supposed to be appalled that rich should pay more taxes. This country had greater growth and more equitable growth when the rich did pay higher taxes; countries in Western Europe have pulled ahead of the US in many social indicators in large part because they have less inequality.
I am reminded of the end of Lord of the Rings (book, not movie) when Sam is holding the ring and realizing how powerful it is and how much power it could give him. Then his "good sound Hobbit sense" comes to his aid. "
For him, a garden to work with his own two hands, not a garden grown to the size of a realm that others work at his command." Maybe we all need some good sound Hobbit sense. Because no one needs $25 billion, $50 billion, $100 billion. No one.
Do you honestly think Bill Gates and Paul Allen would not have created Microsoft if they thought their personal fortunes would stop at, say, $5 billion?
So, your choice,
@Orion Bailey. If you want to vote for a rude, crude, vicious, vulgar, stupid, ignorant, incompetent, utterly corrupt narcissist who cares for nothing but his ego and his wealth, who promises another tax cut for the rich but is taking school lunches from close to a million American children, who puts children in cages and sexually assaults women, who calls anything that does not praise him fake news, who kowtows to Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin, well, you still have that choice. We still have elections. Do you trust Trump to keep them free and fair?
One more point. Donald Trump is now the most powerful president in the history of the United States of America. He has absolutely no moral compass; he has said, and believes, that he can do anything he wants. He has said, falsely, that Article 2 of the Constitution, which he has not read, gives the president the right to do anything. And now the Senate majority is going along with it. They are saying he can break laws, lie, harm allies, endanger national security, corrupt elections, and it's just fine as long as they get right wing judges, tax cuts for the rich, and most of all stay in power. The Attorney General, who although appointed by the president is supposed to work for we the people, concurs; not only does he claim the president has absolute immunity to do anything, he also intends to use the Department of Justice, the full weight of the federal government, to go after Trump's opponents. Is this the man you want to give this power to?
Your choice. I'm out.
