One question you must answer honsetly - poll.

no i can not. not as a soldier.

This is not an apolitical questions, as you're trying to project it. The way your question is formulated implies an acknowledgement of the government's unabridged authority to do whatever they want, whenever they feel like it. I resent this implication, and I am sure you're not alone.

I can look my children in the eye and say - the government have screwed me in the past, and continues to do so in the present and in the future. So it befalls you my children, to take care of you, and your future families, keeping in mind that the government is not your friend, and will never be, unless you get a job in the government. The way you formulated your question you're supposing that we want the government to do something, when the truth is - we do not want the government to do anything, we want the government to leave people to their own devices, and leave people's money in their own discretion. In other words, beyond the absolute minimum - we do NOT want the government.

First your premise in the poll that investing in the future will result in a loss for future generations is false.

I can look my children in the eye and you the author as well and safely say the following:

"There are things I want the OUR government to MUST do now, but they can't we CAN afford it. So I want the government to borrow more money raise taxes on the wealthy now and you will NOT have to pay for it and very likely you will have much less MORE of your own because of this."

I would also add that it is due to the selfishness and greed of the few that the many suffer. ;-)

AND that OUR nation is NOT broke ... but just morally bankrupt!

due to the selfishness and greed

Of those that want something, and instead of paying for it want to force others to do so....which is something that any person with any sense of personal responsibility feels is

morally bankrupt

You appear to be partial to the second scenario. As we have discovered over the last 3 years, our society also has to recognize a third scenario. That would be to bring the wealthy 1% in line with the 99% when determining the tax code. There is no way to distort the damage that has been done to this country as a result of tax loopholes. Corporations paying little to no taxes what so ever, crazy deductions only available to millionaires and billionaires.

I'm not really a person who wants to go back in time but, I do remember a world where it was a sense of pride to be an American. Everyone held hope for the future and were so driven to be the best. We functioned as a single society.

Some where along the line, our society has become so self absorbed. There is no respect for our President. Never has hatred been so intense as it is towards this man. We have nothing to be proud of. Many are angry because of the Bush/Cheney years and the cost of human lives because of a lie. Our President is trying to get the US out of the countries so quickly invaded.

The business model for this country has shifted to an open market where everyone has a chance to thriveand prosper. Now, "small business" owners no longer exist because we are now a society of bigger and bigger monopolies, eating its way through the economic policies that once promised every American an equal chance to move up in life.

We should have noticed what has been happening over the decades and put a stop to it. Anything in this country that has won the distinction as a "Too Big To Fail" entity needs to be broken. Slay the dragon, Bank of America, and bring back the neighborhood banks. The ability to work with known individuals rather than some wizard behind the curtain.

The longer we wait to gain back our perspectives and pride, the more we will loose and never be able to get back. All this haggling about deals with Oil Companies, Wall St hedge fundprofits, feeding the ever consuming dragon, will destroy us as a country. We need to once again invest in America and invest in our children's futures. Pretty pathetic to have the present group of leaders systematically screwing with our children. To mold America into their own image as if they were Gods of some elite race. They are not.

We certainly don't need some fire and brimstone preacher to declare what the approved religion of the US will be. We are a country founded to fight against religious persecution. Our Constitution makes a very clear distinction between Church and State. Don't muddy the waters with personal ideology. In America, everyone is entitled to their personal thoughts, religious beliefs, personal conscience and personal choice to live our lives without government intrusion. No one has the right to take those basic freedoms from us.

I'm not really a person who wants to go back in time but, I do remember a world where it was a sense of pride to be an American. Everyone held hope for the future and were so driven to be the best. We functioned as a single society.

And that was a time where we did not beat on our millionaires and billionaires, we were hoping to become them. So please make a decision - are YOU part of that single society, where meritocracy rules, and hard-work, talent, and good old-fashioned luck can make you rich, or are you a proud member of the cry-baby army, where everything is the 1% fault, and you as people are responsbile for absolutely nothing.

Rabbit-

Agreed. The people who built and ran these businesses that have employed thousands and thousands of people don't deserve to be demonized. If we 'level the playing field' who will go out and find the next newest thing to make and build a business on?

The playing field is level. It may not be polished down to a micron, but we do not have miles and mountains of injustice, outside of the ones we manage to create. You either have a brain and work-ethic, or you don't. It is that simple. If you are willing to put in the time, and have the capacity to comprehend - the life will be good, now if your talents are somewhat more limited - the future may not be as bright, but that is the point - not everyone is born capable of brain surgery. The important thing is to maintain upwards mobility, and provide a respectable but minimalistic (as in nowhere near equal) standard of living for those less fortunate. Oh, yeah, and before I forget - drill, baby, drill.

I started at the bottom in my career and have worked my way up-I live comfortably. Thta's how it should be done-very few get to start at the top, though many feel they deserve that. Life is a learning process. We're not born with everything we need to know about our chosen field.

I once thought I deserved more (as a young, young adult) but learned you advance with knowledge, skills and abilities and personality. Thta has served me well as an adult.

Hmm, I do not recall did we ever agree before?

I want to point out and interesting line in your post - you said that as a young person you felt you "deserved" things, and later you learned that things are "earned" as opposed to given. It seems to me that this particular concept is somehow missing from the current education curriculum.

you said that as a young person you felt you "deserved" things, and later you learned that things are "earned" as opposed to given. It seems to me that this particular concept is somehow missing from the current education curriculum.

Wonder if that would ever work as a political slogan......................na...............

Nope...won't steal from the kids....

Coral, your statement is a valid one, but it is different than the question posed - two different scenarios. They are related, possibly connected, but still different. Don't change the question, because it is still one of many that needs to be answered.

Sorry, but your question is misleading, inaccurate and therefore dishonest. You're assuming only two scenerios and there are a lot more. I can look at my loved ones and tell them that I want the government to invest in their future. I want to make sure that they have the potential for the life I had. I want my loved ones to be educated and cared for. If the government needs to borrow to make sure that we can do that then so be it. If my kids are 10 times better off then does it matter if they have to pay 50% more taxes?

Any business man knows it takes money to make money, and it's easy to be a penny wise and pound foolish. So your question is far too simplistic and therefore misleading.

Who are you to decide that for them? How do you know they will be 10 times better off and paying 50% taxes as middle class citizens?

I believe that's the definition of a parent. I try my best to make decisions for my child that will make them better off in the future.

By the way, that is socialism, ask anyone who came from a former iron curtain nation or just do the math.

When I hear someone use the term socialism I know I am talking to someone who is dogmatic and irrational. These are meaningless Pavlovian terms meant to derive a response. The truth is you cannot have a government without introducing socialism into the picture, because once you have a government, especially a Democratic Government, then you have something that is owned by the people. America has succeeded not because it was a capitalist society, but because it's been able to find balance between commerce and it's social responsibility. Social responsibility is not about morality, it's about keeping the peace. Every revolution has started because people felt neglected.

The problem is that too many people like you are saying it's OK to rob our children of their future because you want the government to give you stuff right now.

Wrong, this is a different question. This is asking how I want the money to be spent. I want the money to be spent investing in our future. I want it invested in education, protecting our resources, building our infrastructure and creating the jobs we need to get people off of welfare. I want to build America back to the nation it was when I was a kid.

If you want to rob your kids of a future, I don't have a problem with that. But you want so much from Uncle Sam, that you are robbing your kids, the kids across the street, the kids across town and MY kids. And when you hurt MY kids, it doesn't make me happy.

It all depends on how you spend that money. Again, the old adage penny wise pound foolish comes to mine. You are robbing your kids of their future when you deny them education, you deny them a healthy environment and you deny them the basic liberties and "entitlements" you grew up with.

I believe that's the definition of a parent. I try my best to make decisions for my child that will make them better off in the future.

Ah yes, I ran into parents like you all the time when assigned to Recruiting Command. A 19-year-old man or woman would want to enlist, only to be overruled by the parents who knew better for them. My generation is entirely too arrogant, selfish, and controlling of their kids. When I turned 18, I left my parents' home and didn't look back, as did a great many in my generation. Is it any wonder we have a generation of 35-year-old "kids" still dependent upon their parents for nearly everything?

Now place that on a grander scale: We know what's better for those who will follow us, which is why we will run up the debt like it's going out of style. And Social Security? Heck, we're good out to at least 2032 or there abouts. What of generations who follow us? Who cares, we got ours, so figure it out later once the bill comes due - daddy and mommy knows best!

Like I said, talk to a person who is from a former iron curtain country, somebody who came here in the late 20th century after growing up in a place like Hungary, Poland or Romania. They lived it, they know it, they see it here. What I'm saying is not dogmatic and irrational - it is the truth.

Purity fails; whether it’s pure socialism or pure capitalism. The US does not have pure capitalism nor does it have pure socialism. It's also not an oligarchy. So your point is irrelevant since we don’t even have anything even approaching an analogy. However, I would point out that one thing that all repressive regimes have had in common is that they were typically oligarchies or monarchies. If you want to be scared of something be scared of that. Be scared of a single group, whether it be Christians, Corporations, Liberals, Conservatives, Republicans or Democrats taking over. When balance is disrupted bad things happen.

The problem is, not everyone sees it that way. They want welfare, they want the government to give them what they are "entitled" to.

Of course everyone doesn’t see it the same way. With 7 billion people on the planet it’s inevitable. I didn’t answer the question for them, I answered it for me. My answer is Yes I am willing to put some debt on my children as long as that debt has a positive effect on their future.

We don't need to spend astronomical amounts of taxpayers money on everything- just the much smaller correct amount of money on the correct things.

Agreed, but that could still get us into debt. What you're talking about is spending your money wisely. Going into debt might be a wise financial decision.

Guaranteed - if we cut spending PROPERLY, we don't need to raise taxes and it won't hurt us or our children,

No that's not guaranteed. If for instance my child had a treatable illness that would only progress over time if left untreated, I WOULD endanger my child. If I don't propery educate my child because I am afraid to raise taxes, then I sacrificed his future. If I don't wisely fund agencies to make sure my childs drinking water is safe then my child my suffer permanent injury because I was too cheap to invest in their future. In fact saying you don't want to pay taxes is just as greedy as those who want entitlements. Taking money from the government is exactly the same as not paying the government for services rendered. It's just as greedy.

Our children have already incurred debt. They have incurred this debt because we as a nation were robbed by Wall Street which was enabled by our Government. Wall Street and Government officials worked hand in hand to create this problem. Now they want us to pay for their f*** up. They say WE should tighten our belts and give up the services that we once all took for granted, because THEY robbed us. That's what they are stealing from OUR children and when you defend them you are complicit in the crime.

The Tea Party is somewhat right about Government, while OWS is somewhat right about corporations. Both of them have 1/2 the problem, but stupid radical ideology keeps them from realize that they are looking at different sides of the same coin.

just the lazy bums with their hands out clamoring for "nanny" to take care of them instead of going out and earning something.

When those “lazy bums” got too repressed, they became unlazy and that's the way revolution starts. Read about the causes of the French Revolution, The Communist Revolution, The Nazi Revolution and even the American Revolution. You will see the term “lazy bums” used a lot by a repressive elite. It’s an ignorant and dangerous statement and always ends up badly.

if i may answer for my grandfather. he would say "its the fault of the adverge citizen for electing the idiots who run our country"

this is why he never voted he believed both partys were wrong

It leads to another question - one directed at the generations before us: Why did you do it to us?

You can not hang this on anyone except yourselves. If you ask your parents, or grandparents, what their lives were like then, as the norm, the details will turn your hair white. They/we lived with conditions that current generations could never endure. All of the niceties that you all figure as entitlements did not even exist during our childhoods. Going to work at 11 years of age was common place even in my generation so I would counter your question, looking you all straight in the eyes, and ask; What have you done with all that we have provided you in the ways of comforts which we never enjoyed and you have through our efforts. What would you have us do for you now that you have squandered all that we suffered so greatly to provide for you?

What would you have us do for you now that you have squandered all that we suffered so greatly to provide for you?

Great reply.

Chief CRD:, FNUtmegger - ask these people what they will do now that they have squandered all that you worked so hard to provide. There are those of us who worked hard to not squander it.

You are the exception to the rule, here, and I am grateful that there folks such as your self, too. You picked the exact time, IMO, when this started to go into the toilet. The time of "Do not trust anyone older that yourself. Challenge ever rule of law and only follow those that you agree with. Protest all governmental rulings that you do not agree with." It has been all down hill from there to where we are today and where folks such as yourself are, as I said, the exceptions, and in the minority! I am old, and from the generations of either your Parents, or mostly Grandparents, and this adventure for me is nearly over and none too soon, either.

Going to work at 11 years of age was common place even in my generation so I would counter your question, looking you all straight in the eyes, and ask; What have you done with all that we have provided you in the ways of comforts which we never enjoyed and you have through our efforts. What would you have us do for you now that you have squandered all that we suffered so greatly to provide for you?

Late to the party, I know...but this is the kind of spankin' I like to see given. Fab response, FIN.

Thank you, formerstew, I am able to attest to that since I am one of those who started working at 11 and never stopped through war and peace until forced to by cancer.

Sad isn't it?

Of course we see that same type of attitude concerning all kinds of things going on in this country.

It boils down to spoiled little brats throwing a temper tantrum screaming "I want (fill in the blank) and I want someone else to pay for it".