Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utcsri!utegc!utai!ubc-vision!mprvaxa!acton
From: acton@mprvaxa.UUCP
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: Make the rich pay?
Message-ID: <826@mprvaxa.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 13-Dec-86 20:41:54 EST
Article-I.D.: mprvaxa.826
Posted: Sat Dec 13 20:41:54 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 16-Dec-86 01:34:28 EST
References: <2819@watdcsu.UUCP> <708@looking.UUCP>
Reply-To: acton@mprvaxa.UUCP (Don Acton)
Distribution: can
Organization: Microtel Pacific Research, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Lines: 34

In article <3764@utcsri.UUCP> clarke@utcsri.UUCP (Jim Clarke) writes:
>
>In article <2840@watdcsu.UUCP> brewster@watdcsu.UUCP writes:
>	(in response to my posting)
>>  You seem to assume that there is an automatic right for people to
>>  expect to receive unemployment and welfare.
>	I sure do, only I'd phrase it as "a right to food, clothing,
>	shelter and education".  Education's not usually on that list,
>	but we acknowledged that right in the nineteenth century when
>	we brought in free schooling.  Daycare is education.

Daycare is education? I think that is really stretching things. Just
about everything is an educational experience. For example working on a farm,
having a newspaper route, or visiting a hooker are all, no doubt, very
educational experiences but that doesn't mean the government should pay
for them. 
 
The most disconcerting part about your posting is that you say these
things should be rights. Rights should imply obligations but there
is no suggestion on your part that people have any obligations at all
and when my tax dollars are concerned that chokes me up a bit. I would
like to think that if I do things through my tax dollars for people that
they do something for society in return. For example if we pay someone
welfare then they have the obligation to use it to buy food, shelter and
clothing and not to booze it away. Likewise I expect people on UIC to be
looking for jobs and not seeing how long they can collect before it
runs out and they start "really" looking for work.  This I think just
accentuates the point brewster@watdscu was trying to make when he asked
what was wrong with Canada. Everyone seems to want a free lunch but they
forget that in the end someone has to pay. Unfortunately the Canadian
government seems to have forgotten that someone has to pay too
and they have continued to promise anything and everything to anyone.

  Donald Acton