Quote:
Originally Posted by txdot-guy
This belief / attitude is why so many people are attracted to socialism. The concept of shared resources and shared sacrifice flies in the very face of capitalism.
U.S. society requires infrastructure to run properly. Rich and poor alike benefit from it.
What galls me the most is the belief of some that their success is through their effort alone.Their success is rightly earned but it doesn't exist in a vacuum. Success in our capitalist system requires there to be a system to succeed in. That system is the infrastructure, education system and the laws that make up our society. The next time someone boasts of their success I hope they realize they couldn't get the same results if they lived in Nigeria, Egypt, or Syria.
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This is a much kinder and better version of Obama's "If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen." That pissed me off more than anything he said. But I agree with you. The difference is based on where the two of you are coming from.
Presumably you work for the Texas DOT. What you and other people in Texas state and local governments do for the rest of us here is essential, and it's done well. You provide and maintain the roads, sewers, schools, universities, policing, rule of law, etc. Without these none of us could function above subsistence level, let alone achieve "success". I'd gladly pay multiples more than what I pay now in state and local tax, and am indeed thankful for the opportunities that the state of Texas and the localities where I've lived have made possible.
On the other hand, President Obama and the federal government haven't helped me achieve much of anything. They just took my money and burdened me with lots of paperwork. The Feds do help many people. But they often do it inefficiently.
My city and state serve me, while I serve the Federal government. Yes it would be much worse living, say, in the USSR or East Germany forty or fifty years ago. But the relationship that many of us have with the Federal government is somewhat similar.
