I think everyone deserves to be fed and housed and have basic health care. I believe those to be human rights.
The healthcare part gets messy, but I believe you vastly overestimate how difficult it is to avoid starving and being homeless in this country.
Government is force and you're suggesting using the government to meet your goals. That's not a straw man.
You think there is no poverty in England and Germany or even your beloved Norway? Once again you focus on the gap and not on how well the poor have it.
Poor poor bastards with $300,000 homes. How can we as a society allow this! http://www.zillow.com/compton-ca/home-values/
IP, I saw this and thought it might be of interest to you: The challenges facing atheists in the U.S. http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/the-challenges-facing-atheists-in-the-u-s/
I'm saying they do a better job at addressing it, though not a perfect one. Salt Lake City just eradicated homelessness. How? They built homes and put the homeless in them.
It's a shame, but I think times are changing. Many people think atheists are devil worshipers or some sort of adversary. More often they're just normal people. It is even telling that the article says "in a country built on religious tolerance..." Atheism isn't a religion. That's why it is so difficult for devout people of various faiths to accept it as a legitimate point of view.
Again that's perfect world views. We're all different and have different ideas on what that collaboration should be and how much of it. So the only ways to make it happen is either privately which would be voluntarily working together or through government which uses force through laws.
Perhaps there are more collaborative ways to tackle these problems. As I've said before with other issues, we used to not be afraid to experiment in this country in the beginning. Why not have different places try different techniques, and we can take what works and discard what doesn't? It has happened organically with marijuana laws. Why not expand that further with all manner of issues of the day?
Germany poverty rate 15.5. United Kingdom 14. United States 15.1. What's your evidence they do a better job? There are homeless shelters everywhere in this country. not every homeless person takes advantage of what is available.
I'm fine with states practicing charity and having safety nets, but I don't believe that's the role of the federal government.
This was before both parties in Washington decided that one size fits all federal regulation was the solution to everything.
Most nations as successful as ours slowly collapse inward because of unsustainable practices. A state can't print print their own currency, so they can't prolong unsustainable programs endangering the whole Union. We have some really huge challenges coming up on the national debt to out of control spending. plus our super low interest rates are keeping people from saving and investing. Once the government can't keep those rates so artificially low, the amount of debt being paid just to interest is going to sky rocket.
A common argument I have heard is that the State is closer to the situation and knows better what their people need.
