[claudiulodro]

If people are working full time yet still in poverty, they will need government services like food stamps. In this scenario your tax dollars subsidize businesses that pay poverty wages. Wal Mart is the top employer of SNAP and Medicaid recipients. You would rather subsidize Wal Mart’s margins with your tax dollars?

[bofadeez]

I think the role of government is limited to that of protecting constitutional rights of citizens. People in impoverished countries live with extended family and share income and get along just fine. We shouldn't violate rights of individuals to facilitate a welfare program. That should be handled by families, communities, religious institutions, etc.

[abenga]

That is your opinion. The role of government should be whatever the citizens decide through democratic processes. If they want the government to go around feeding people from milk bottles, that is what it will be. If they decide it is to run the fight club that decides who eats and who dies, that will be its role. Americans have decided that the role of government is going to be closer to the second than the first, as is their right. Other countries lie in a different points in the continuum, but they are not any more wrong.

[bofadeez]

Yeah it's the opinion of the western world. "We hold these truths to be self evident" is the preamble.

These truths are not self evident to other cultures. Like yours

[abenga]

What Western world? European countries have decent social safety nets administered by the government.

[slipperydippery]

They're just trolling. This is far too silly a line of argument to treat seriously.