America and capitalism has done more to advance a citizens’ standard of living than any other “-ism” or means fo government. How much so? The poor in this country (roughly about 30 Million by the Census Bureau’s annual poverty report) are much more wealthy than their poor compatriots around the world. You might think that our poor are just on the higher end of the world poverty scale but I would argue that most of them don’t even belong in that category. Let me present a few facts gleamed from Robert Rector’s article on this subject:

• The typical “poor person” in America has cable or satellite TV and has two televisions in their house.
• 40 percent of those below the poverty line own their own home, which on average is a 3 bedroom, 1 and a half bath house with 2 rooms per resident.
• Eighty four percent of these homes have air conditioning.
• About half of them have computers, and most have a VCR, DVD player, and microwave ovens.
• On average, “poor” children are nourished as well as children of upper middle class families.

Mr. Rector points out that in 2008, federal and state governments spent $718 billion on means-tested welfare aid, providing cash, food, housing, medical care, and targeted social services to poor and low-income Americans (this doesn’t count Social Security or Medicare). If we took that same amount and cut it by 25% and doled it out to those families under the federal poverty line, we’d have no “poor” left in the country.

So now we’re having another “war on poverty” in essence by trying to provide a means for somewhere under 10% of the country (the 45 million uninsured number includes those who voluntarily do not get insurance, so we’ll peg it closer to 30 million) to pay for medical coverage. This will be done via a progressive tax system to redistribute the wealth in this country.

Envy is probably the easiest deadly sin to fall into – coveting what others comes somewhat naturally in these times. So are liberals coveting the successes of some to the point that they feel these people should pay for other people’s health care, education, and other non-constitutional-based benefits? Don’t forget that a large amount of private charity funding goes to support these “poor” people as well. Of course, according to President Obama’s campaign speech to Congress last night, he wants another $900+ billion to make the nationalize health care system a reality (a number that many analysts say is off by a factor of 2 or 3). This would be over and above this $718 billion.

I think it’s all too easy to support Obama’s plan because it is a sin of envy. Instead we should be supporting acts of charity and mercy and encouraging those in “poverty” (maybe I should say relative poverty) to better themselves so that they can afford health care insurance like other employed people.

GorT

GorT is an eight-foot-tall robot from the 51ˢᵗ Century who routinely time-travels to steal expensive technology from the future and return it to the past for retroinvention. The profits from this pay all the Gormogons’ bills, including subsidizing this website. Some of the products he has introduced from the future include oven mitts, the Guinness widget, Oxy-Clean, and Dr. Pepper. Due to his immense cybernetic brain, GorT is able to produce a post in 0.023 seconds and research it in even less time. Only ’Puter spends less time on research. GorT speaks entirely in zeros and ones, but occasionally throws in a ڭ to annoy the Volgi. He is a massive proponent of science, technology, and energy development, and enjoys nothing more than taking the Czar’s more interesting scientific theories, going into the past, publishing them as his own, and then returning to take credit for them. He is the only Gormogon who is capable of doing math. Possessed of incredible strength, he understands the awesome responsibility that follows and only uses it to hurt people.