I'd kill for an education

But if it is “messed up” that you be asked to “kill or be killed” to get a free education- how messed up is it to ask that you get a free ride because you showed up? Giving a person who helps their country and its people a grant makes common sense. If you pledged to work as a government psychologist for 4 years for $20k a year helping treat kids and low income people, maybe preventing the next school shooting- ok. Let’s talk. But when you want an education to benefit YOU so that YOU can get a good job and have a good life, and YOU aren’t willing to give back anything for it and expect it for free? No. I reject it.

And what if countries with compulsory military service? What if the fact that every US citizen by virtue of accepting the benefits and rights of a citizen- has agreed to defend their country if called regardless of age or sex or anything else? It’s entitled. I hate to say it because that’s the tag line of the right wing and not all charity is entitlement- but it IS entitlement when someone expects their country to do these things for them and not have to give anything back except pay taxes and not break laws.

That would be nice. Perhaps easier said than done- at least in a system where economic libertarianism is the norm (not saying that is bad or good. Just a fact.) But for example- if a person buys a $70k car to drive Lyft or deliver pizza, and can’t make enough money or get hired as a driver- is the fact a series of miscalculations and poor choices led them to debt on their chosen path to profit a social issue or a personal issue?

Perhaps... both? I mean- a large corporation COULD and likely would get assistance if it miscalculated. A bank certainly would. As the bail outs and stimulus and other things show- we have a system to say: “we can’t let these businesses fail. It is bad for society...” however we don’t really apply that to a home or healthcare or a private individual. But aren’t people themselves the make up of the society these sorts of things are meant to benefit?

So to me anyway- the root of the issue is greed and personal “self determination.” We usually claim to have succeeded by our merits but we tend to claim to fail by other factors. We don’t look as hard to how we can share our success when we do well- but we sure do want to share the burden when things go wrong.

1,000 cars on the freeway each morning with 1 lone person in each, all going the same way but by themselves. They’ll go home and many will be separated by a few feet or so from the family next to them and not want to smell their food or hear their lives through the walls. There is a strong difference between being about lifting everyone up and supporting things that lift us or those we see like up with a side effect that it might help someone else too.