in response to an email I received... but, in general what I believe

Many Americans have an inadequate education as a result of our government run education system. The government is not good at running things. WE are good at running things and competition is good at providing excellence and weeding out apathetic results produced by things like tenure. Fire and EMS are defensive insitutions in my mind and I am supportive of the idea. But holy crap, man. Are you happy with what you're being paid? I'm an EMT. There's no chance in hell's half acre that you'll find me working as one though. I gotta make money to support myself and being an EMT ain't gonna cut it. I'm all for helping people, too. But you should be paid more for what you do. I'd gladly pay more taxes to increase your pay, but a general tax increase will not pass and it's because there is too much waste in big government. We do need progress. It won't come from ANY party. Left or Right, Green or Pink... It doesn't matter. We need for more people to realize what you have defined as progress and take it back into our own hands - into our own marketplace for the consumer to decide. Our economy is suffering because FDR did the stupidest thing ever - divorced our money from any logical value system. Our economy is also suffering because we have bent over and allowed ourselves to be bought time and time again by China. Poverty is related to our continued social allowances for stupid decisions. We are in a moral depression and it's being compensated for by big government. It can't continue because no government can maintain that expenditure and survive. I don't believe that alienation is a bad thing. I also don't believe that a large amount of the people receiving government assistance need to. I agree that some people need help. I don't believe that the government should be their first line of defense. However, I do believe our government can be a last line of defense. When we accomodate people that are too willing to take handouts, we create a second/lower class. That fault lies with big government AND the individual taking the handout. The Nixon "solution" was the lesser of 3 evils. And I'm not for it. But had Kennedy or big labor won out, we'd be even worse off than we already are. The reason that the insurance and pharm companies are raking in so much money is due to the whores we elect to office. The Dems aren't any better or worse (please don't hit me, Mom) than the Republicans. The ins/pharm companies are pulling in huge profits because the government has regulated their industries. With lobbying comes regulation; with regulation, the government defines a power distribution; when that happens you and I pay more and get less because the government is too slow to adapt to ineptitude and the market cannot function as a free market should. You are correct. We need progress. We simply don't agree on how to attain our mutual goal.