Re: The just and the unjust ways to address modern racial inequality: affirmative act
I must have struck a nerve by picking on Progressives... If indeed you are a progressive, then its sweet irony that an ideology you support has bitten you in the college admissions.
You pick the same old arguments that the supporters of Socialism always pick... No doubt drummed into your head, and reinforced, by every teacher you've ever had:
The Post office was NOT a Progressive idea. Created in 1775, before we were even a nation, the Post office offers a service that all Americans have equal access to, no matter what your race, gender or income level.
The cost of a postage stamp doesn't begin to cover their costs. The post office is bankrupt and operates in deficits, 2007 alone saw a deficit of 5.4 billion dollars... Post office deficits are covered by tax money from the general fund so you're wrong about it not requiring tax money to operate.
UPS and Fed Ex operate FOR profit and while they may appear more expensive than their USPS counterpart, once you factor in the taxes necessary to fund the USPS operations, the private mail delivery operates far more efficiently and at a lower cost than the USPS.
You picked a terrible but common example. Roads too were not created as a result of the Progressive ideology... Funding for road projects comes from the states in which the roads are built and the funding comes from state taxes, such as the gas tax which differs from state to state (same with schools, they are paid for by local and state taxes, not federal taxes). The federal government provides very little revenue to road projects.
Like the Post Office, our roads are equally open to anyone, at any time and they are a necessity for commerce and Capitalism to function. If the Roads were to become private property, they could be built and maintained through the use of advertisements (billboards that you see on the highway now) and/or through tolls.
I take it you don't care about the constitutionality of anything the government does, so long as its done with good intentions and there is the possibility of a positive outcome. You should have mentioned the Military (which is a constitutional expenditure) or Space exploration, far more benefits to society have been achieved through those expenditures than through scientific research.
You have a perverted sense of what Capitalism is and how it operates, such misconceptions are likely a product of our wonderful education system. The profit motive has provided you with 99% of what you enjoy as the benefits of an industrialized and advanced society.
The Emancipation Proclamation was used to destabilize the south during the civil war, because the majority of their economy depended on slave labor.
I love how people equate Capitalism with Anarchy and Rational Self Interest as Greed or Hedonism...
"The mind does not easily unlearn what it has been long in learning." -- Seneca (4 BC - 65 AD)
But if they had been "Progressive" and operated on the same Non-Profit principle as the Post office, they would have failed long ago. Had they operated on a more "Progressive" plane, they would have offered even more risky loans because Altruism dictates they act in the best interest of others and not in their own best interest.
The statement is still true no matter who said it... One need only look at the current state of politics in America to understand that the party offering the greatest handouts from the public trough does the best in the polls. Republicans are seen as greedy for not wanting to redistribute wealth and the Democrats are heralded as modern day Robin Hoods for promising to "Spread the wealth around".
You must not have read De Tocqueville's Democracy in America and if you did, you didn't understand what he was saying. The book warns of how we would lose our Democratic Republic and the dangers inherent to any democracy.
This is no longer the case as we have seen since the rise of Progressivism in America and the abrogation of Individual rights and liberty to the concept of the Common or Greater Good.
This to is no longer the case as we do have Washington. The power of the States has been stripped and overly centralized into that one metropolis... a situation that De Tocqueville points out as causing the demise of republics throughout history.
Place a stack of quarters in front of you. That stack represents all liberty. Now take one quarter off that stack and place it next to the original stack, that new stack represents Government. As we grow government, we have to take from our liberties to do so. This is why its so imperative to understand the lessons the founders had applied when founding this country: "That government is best which governs least" -- Thomas Paine
Our once proud and functioning Federalist system has been shifting power from the people, and from the states, to Washington where Central Planning and top down bureaucracy has been flourishing for more than a century. As their power grows, our liberties are diminished. One doesn't have to be a psychic to understand where this leads us as a nation.
