I don't believe that liberals don't think it's about righteousness. They are the ones preaching the moral necessity of entitlements and trying to say that Jesus was a socialist.
Well, hello. I'm a liberal.
The important matter is not whether this or that system is more
moral. The important matter is whether this or that system is more effective at creating a society whose citizens are healthy, happy, and productive. I do not care in the slightest about whether or not it makes you feel like you're being a good person.
All the major industries? I don't believe this. Media and education, yes. But there's plenty left besides all that.
Thank goodness.
You've got a couple flaws here. One is that you are assuming Christians will do ALL the private charity work, and we both know this is not so.
I'm not assuming that. I know that non-Christians do charity work. But what I'm trying to draw attention to is the hypocrisy of the position that "liberals never do charity work" but that also "we don't need taxes; we can rely on people's generosity."
I'm not particularly, in this thread, trying to advocate a more or less socialist government. I'm trying to point out the problems as I see them with the reasons given by certain conservatives for their opposition to social schemes.
The second is that government entitlements will do the job better than private charities, which also is not so.
That is a matter to discuss. I am not particularly willing to discuss it here. As I said, I'm not especially advocating one side or another in this thread, although I'm sure my preferences are clear. I'm just objecting to the particular arguments that I have seen which are bothersome to me.
I'm not against taxation in general, I believe it is a necessary evil. We need a military, highways, police and fire departments. Those are best taken care of with public funds. Retirement planning is not, though. Education, well, our model for public education has gone down the toilet. Government housing - yeah, the projects are a disgrace. Those debit cards we gave to Katrina victims - awful. Disability - a lot harder to get than you thought. And to think that liberals preach a moral obligation for us to extend the government into health care more than it already is, that's just a horrible idea. This government has not done well with social programs, we should not trust it with more. The problems that other countries have with universal health care would be increased several times over if we implemented it here - to say nothing of the bureaucratic mess that gets in the way of patients getting well at our veterans' hospitals. We need change, but not socialist change.
Well, I don't live in your country, so I can't comment. My initial point was not about the merits of one or another kind of government, but about the attitudes of certain people who advocate one or another. I really don't want to be dragged into a discussion about the particular state of social programmes in your country, because to be honest I'm no more interested in them than you are likely interested in those in mine.
My whole life I've heard the opposite - that Liberals love and want to care for the poor, and Conservatives hate and even want to kill the poor.
Where are you "always being told" this? I'd like to know, because I'd like to hear from a source which relates facts for a change. The fact is, liberals are not as generous.
On Christian Forums, of course.
I'm neither affirming nor denying that "liberals are not as generous". What I am asking is how the claim that liberals are not as generous can be squared with the claims that liberalism is on the rise and that taxation should be cut.
