>>>>>And how does a hungry 3-year-old do that?
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>>>>The parents are responsible and need to feed their child.
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>>>I agree with you, but what if they don't for whatever reasons. I believe that one of the functions of forming a society is to ensure that children don't go hungry (or naked or uneducated).
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>>We agree on the principal. It's the method where i believe we differ. For instance I am all for tax money being spent on education. However, I despise the current system because the state and big unions have complete control. Local districts have far too little say in the educational process, let alone the parents or students themselves. I'm all for some form of a voucher system from pre-school through college. I believe an educated citizen has a much greater chance of being a productive and self-sustained member of society. In addition, I believe similar programs could be developed to address food, clothing and shelter as well. The problem I have is that the current solutions disregard the market completely and impose mandates from the state.
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>But none of that addresses the 3-year-old whose parents aren't feeding him. The state does need to intervene in that case because they're the only ones with the authority to do so.
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>>Full disclosure : My mother is a retired 1st grade teacher and a member of the CTA
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>FWIW, my mother is a retired 1st grade teacher, a member of the AFT, and a board member of the Philadelphia Retired Teachers (or whatever that piece of the union is called).
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>She still volunteers in the school where she taught for many years, as well as at the school my sister's children attend.
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>>>If you think about it, rather a lot of what government is for is what happens when people don't do the right things. (Not all of it, of course--stuff like trash collection and road building is for the common good, in another way.)
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>>Of course "right" is a very subjective term in this context. I think the government should be minimalist in its approach and I have a big problem with legislating behavior. I'm not speaking of crimes against others but of the nanny laws controlling individual choice, such as helmet laws, banning cell-phones while driving and smoking ordinances on private property. To me free includes the freedom to make choices, good or bad.
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>I agree that we shouldn't legislate everything, cradle to grave, but I also think there are some key principles. One of them is that kids need to be protected and if their parents won't do it, society has an interest in doing so. So requiring child car seats, for example, is in a different category than requiring adults to wear seatbelts.
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>The second principle is that we are a society and we do have to require people to do some things they may not want to, for the good of society as a whole. Laws that prevent people from dumping sewage into water supplies fit in this category, as do a whole host of laws around labor rules, public health, and so forth.
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>The hard question and, I suspect, the place where you and I part company is over what is in the public interest and what is not. Helmet laws are a good example. Bike helmets for kids fit into the first category above, so let's leave those out and talk about motorcycle helmet laws. The real question is whether motorcyclists who don't wear helmets and get into accidents end up costing the public money. Now, in your view of how things should work, they wouldn't because public money wouldn't be used for anyone's health care. In my view, the government is the payer of last resort. In that scenario, the cyclist who goes without a helmet, crashes and winds up needing a lifetime of car costs us both a lot of money.
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>Not sure we can resolve this difference, but just understanding it is a step in the right direction.
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I have to say I am with Jake regarding bike helmets and most of the other things he mentions. There are no federal laws requiring bike helmets but about half the states require them, up to various ages. (http://www.iihs.org/laws/HelmetUseCurrent.aspx). I don't think government has any business passing or enforcing "good for you" laws such as this on individuals. When I see a kid wearing a helmet, what I actually see is an overprotective parent.

With some exceptions, if you look at the state by chart in the link above it appears to be a blue state thing.