Entitlements - what's so bad about them?

I hope you don't mind if the kids have ice cream and cookies once a year.What kind of communities do you build with children who get "just enough to eat...basic subsistance needs"?

That subject-verb construction typifies American black vernacular.Is that the "type" you wished to invoke?There are many dialects in the U.S.: you could have used "youse guys or "dose guys" or "ya'll" (the most common dialect among the predominantly white folks on the government teat)--or even the simple "You owe me" which would typify the attitude across groups.But you didn't.The typical conservative response at this juncture is to complain that the race card has been put in play.But you put the card on the table.I just turned it face up.

Is there no limit to your appetite for paraphrasing a slogan over and over in preference to reasoned responses?I don't understand how you can discuss science like a scientist but rant at policy differences like someone leading a Luddite mob.By the way, the Killer of the Golden Goose Award would better go to the corporate/financial elite who savaged the global economy.If the wealthiest 1% were to "go Galt" because they resented taxes being returned to historical levels (the levels that made the U.S. a preeminently prosperous and powerful nation), the rest of us would do just fine. Don't confuse the wealthiest 1% with the smartest, most talented, or hardest working 1%.

You've bolstered Coyote's case immeasurably.

I've waited a few days to reply to your post, wanting to take the time to reflect carefully and respond calmly.Let's get the personal out of the way first: I grew up in Indiana and Kentucky, spending the school year in a poor white neighborhood (locally referred to as The Bottoms) in Indianapolis, a neighborhood, like many poor city neighborhoods, saddled with grotesque pollution because the poor have no power to prevent it.I spent summers on working farms in western Kentucky that belonged to close relatives. My parents were Depression kids and never requested or received any kind of public assistance; nor have I. I'll stack up my work ethic and independence against anything you can bring to bear from your generic "hills".Now let's consider your claims about the independence and self-sufficiency of rural folks in general in the U.S.Your claim is that the city people are bloodsuckers who prey on the real, hardworking country folks. But the facts show exactly the opposite: The two coasts (more than half of the American population lives within 50 miles of a coast) and the old industrial upper Midwest generate the lion's share of wealth in the U.S. and carry the greatest tax burden; the rural, conservative "red" states make a profit on their federal taxes, receiving ~30 cents more back on each federal tax dollar than the urban, liberal "blue" states.Many rural "red" states boast of low or no income taxes and/or property taxes. That's because they're vacuuming the funds they need from blue state city slicker pockets.American farmers typically, like you, bemoan federal funds spent to assist urban populations. Meanwhile, they receive subsidies to grow and subsidies not to grow, as well as price supports that prevent Americans from enjoying lower, real world prices on many foodstuffs.In addition, we shiftless city folks subsidize your telephone lines, your regional airports and your highways. Due to our greater efficiency at generating wealth, and thus tax receipts, we subsidize nearly every facet of rural life. Many city dwellers, who rent in higher numbers than rural folks, subsidize home purchases by others in both cities and farms: ever buy a house? Did you enjoy the mortgage interest deduction? If so, you were taking wealth from millions of Americans who did not or could not buy a home.And that's okay with me: we're one people, and it is extraordinarily important for both the present and the future that every child have access to a decent life. I do not, in fact, begrudge a single penny.But I do object to being called a leech in the name of Americans who in fact receive far greater largess.And that goes to the heart of what I most criticize in your posts on these subjects. Your claims and assertions bear the hallmark of the coarsest kind of prejudice--the kind that is readily contradicted by even a cursory examination of facts that are more available than ever. But you can't be bothered. You prefer to cling to ethnic, regional and ideological prejudices so tightly that you refuse to even attempt to give them factual support. You wouldn't dream of conducting a scientific debate in this fashion.So the next time you travel to or from your hills, by air or by highway, or call to say you're almost there, or admire the landscape of green fields and woodlots around you...Hey, you're welcome.

Yes. I have some in mind.But first I want my damn rent. That land is my land.Edited by Omnivorous, : No reason given.

On our federal lands out west, the rent is too damn cheap.The water was too damn cheap, too, so they sucked it all out of the ground. Then it quit raining.