Oh, I don’t know about that… ;-)

And I agree with you that we all have to learn to stand on our own two feet. But… how many times did will we fall flat on our faces before we learned how to walk on our own? And who was there to smooth out the bumps for us along the way?

When it comes to human growth, there must be a plan for human failures as failure is often a necessary component of success. Government has a big role to play here because some of us, no matter how good the system is designed to accomodate success, some of us will fail. Some of us never will succeed or rise from failure so there has to be a big brother out there looking over our shoulders to soften the landings as much as possible. Its the same old same O, the allocation of resources and its a given that we must invest in success, but we do have to invest in the results of failure as well. Its called damage control. Its not a question really about whether or not those who are independent should look after those who aren’t… its a question of who ultimately pays for it and by how much and if those who are independent tire of paying the way for those who aren’t, then show dependents the way to independence if at all possible.

Just as government must trust most of citizens to fend for themselves, government must also trust that some of its citizens can’t. Not everyone is independent or fully capable. Not everyone who has the potential to fend for themselves will live up to that potential. Its called free will and as such, there must always be a plan for failure. Its why we have what we have, from public systems of education, welfare, old age pensions and EI, to judicial and Penal systems because to many of us have tried to educate ourselves or our loved ones on our own, tried to keep ourselves and each other healthy, tried to stay working and couldn’t, tried to save but didn’t or ran out of time, or simply didn’t try at all and became a public danger.

Let the weak perish and the strong survive… we can’t be rigid with this belief because history teaches us that where there is weakness, often we will find strength. Where there is strength, often we will find weakness and these weaknesses and strengths are often intangible. Some things are black and white, while others will always be a shade of grey and I really like that quote of yours, “give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime” because it applies precisely to what I’m talking about (or inspired it)

Yes, I like that one very much!

Have a great day, DA and you too, EMMA! I’ve run out of energy and time or otherwise I’d honor your response with more of the same. Cheers!

“bla bla bla bla bla the tend is still intact! Intact I say! Since it hasn’t happened yet it never will!”

Except the trend is not intact, even the recent rally hasn’t put house prices “back in trend”, and a speculative vehicle that trades below trend eventually starts a new one, which is down.

Even trees don’t grow to the sky.

Sorry I was not quicker to respond to your inquiry. Fact is I suspect it could evolve into an inappropriate lengthy discussion for these forums.

Let’s just say that I subscribe to the “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime” theories. Eventually we must all be thrown from the nest… learn to fly or die. Just as this is how we have taught our own children so to do I believe government should trust that it’s citizens are capable of fending for themselves.