Marks was interesting, but really not acheivable; given the nature of mankind as a whole.

I would tend to agree with this, but I also would counter that it is the responsibility of Good Govenment to be responsible with the monies we give them. The problem, however, is that they typically are not. Rather, they kowtow to some special interests at the expense of other, more important ones. For example..catering to Big Agriculture at the expense of more important Conservation efforts. Frankly this is where more checks/balances need to be in the system.

Those who ‘have’ should, always take care of those who are unable to take care of themselves. We do a pretty mediocre job with this overall, but we do a good job in certain focus area. Some people are happy with jobs that are low pay; it’s all in how you are wired. Just as some people are engineers, some are servers in a restaurant. I know many people who are perfectly happy working as a server in a restaurant, are they less ‘able’ to take care of themselves? or are they just happiest doing what they do ? For one of the places we do a poor job, I would love to see us realy fix our Heath Insurance system; but until We The People make our voices heard LOUDLY; it won’t happen.

Side note to everyone here with a personal pet peeve—-Servers salaries are the TIPS yo provide them. An employer doesn’t withhold any of your salary when you make a mistake, why should we as customers. For that ‘period’ of time, you are effectively the ‘employer’ of that server. Yes, they might have 4 other ‘employers’ during the same period, but they’re all responsible for providing their salary. If you have an issue with the performance of the server, let them know kindly and quietly as a good ‘employer’ would.