Comment by Gaytor on September 21, 2011 at 11:24am

On his Libertarian vs Liberal points, the problem for his argument is that the results can be seen as data. Also, people being good in general does nothing to put a roof over ones head. Nor does putting a sandwich in ones stomach change their future outlook. In Sweden, they have 1 homeless person for every 5000 inhabitants. We (US) have 1 for every 200. Sweden's taxes are 3% higher than ours if you include what we pay for services such as Healthcare and Higher Education. We could agree that 3% is marginal? In Seattle we have a program that houses chronic homeless alcoholics for free. The costs associated with caring for them went from 50k per year to 13k. The reality is that building low income housing and providing education lowers crime rates and saves money as a burden on the system. This is not something that is effectively done as a society outside of government. You may be able to find the odd exception of great strides people have made, but overall, the planning and bringing all of the pieces together is best done by the government. Penn likes the idea of Libertarianism, but that doesn't mean that he can point to it's effectiveness. Communism can be viewed as a beautiful idea as well, but it's not effective. Somewhere in the middle is where we'll find balance.

Comment by trillianalice on September 22, 2011 at 2:00am

I agree with you Gaytor, there are too many people that will not be helped with a Libertarian government.  I deal with it all the time, the amount of children that are hungry every single day is heartbreaking. These are families that are not going to the government for help or cannot qualify.  My own mother, who was a widow received $12.00 a month over the limit to receive help.  This was a woman that took care of the elderly all her life and her last years were horrible worrying about eating or getting medicine.  So sad I will never get over the decisions.

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