Donald Trump donates his first presidential paycheck to help restore Antietam

[A. P. Hill]

Paragraphs and breathing between comments can be your friends sometimes.

[crazychester1247]

When you're thinking about posting but you see a 966 word paragraph claiming that America is turning communist.

[Dman979]

Guys, give him a break. It's two paragraphs, not one.

JB Hood, it's still a bit difficult for me to understand what you're saying. Do you mind breaking it up a bit more? Say, make each number a separate line?

Best,
Dman979

[Erwin]

Your story is a testament to your hard work and I commend you for it. However, the definition you just cited is different from what you said before. There's a big difference between "everyone should have equal opportunity" and "everyone does have equal opportunity".



You are turning your back on 14.5% of the US population with that statement (the amount of people living below the poverty line last year). "Looks like 45 million people are lazy, oh well, they don't deserve a decent life anyway". <-- This is what your notion of the American Dream amounts to in a modern context.

I don't look at suffering and shrug, but I also don't believe that I should be forced to fund their suffering. There are plenty of programs that they can go to ran by private organizations that are there to help without taking money out of my pocket.

[Erwin]

Erwin, do you think you have a valid economic theory just because of an anecdote? Of course there are going to people who find success in any scenario. The reality is that the US has massive income inequality, relatively low social mobility, an extremely inefficient education system that affords some people far more opportunity than others, and an absolutely abysmal health system in comparison to other nations that are as developed as we are.

You say that the US is number 1 in wealthiest people. That means diddly squat. You also insist that anyone can be successful with shear determination. While there might be some validity to this, it isn't a recipe for a successful society. Furthermore, major success due to "determination" usually also involves a lot of luck and opportunity. I would recommend Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell for more on this.

You mention that the US is 44th in health care as though it's not that bad. How can you possibly be content with that? Why should we be satisfied with such an awful status quo when we can change it by taking queues from other countries that have managed to? Oh right, "those are small countries, so they can have a good health system, but we can't"... oh wait, that's just a myth that's perpetuated by conservative commentators.

I could go on and on addressing your arguments, but it would take a lot of time and I doubt you would be convinced. All I can say is that you've clearly drunk the kool aid that people like the Koch brothers want you to drink in order to sustain the system that lets them grow immeasurably wealthy while leaving other communities in the dust, without health care, uneducated, etc.

Good luck with your degree (not being sarcastic). I think that in the course of pursuing it you might find that some of your ideas are not consistent with historical realities.

This simply comes down to either believing the American Dream, and our different political views. I can tell that you don't agree with my notions, and I won't agree with yours. So, I think in the interest of being civil I will agree to disagree with you if you find that's alright.

[Erwin]

Yep! I'm anti-family (screw the next generation), anti-culture (that garbage music, literature and, art), and of course anti-morality (Nietzsche was right).

Thank heavens you forgave me.

Please be mocking or joking

[Erwin]

That's how this country started and that's how it should be. It wasn't until the civil war that the Federal Gov gained much of it's power. I would love for the Gov. to go back to the way it was before the war, but I don't think that will happen unfortunately.

Indeed, we probably have a long ways to go if we even tried to return to that. Being a super power and having a small Federal government doesn't really go hand in hand sadly.

[FrancisM]

This simply comes down to either believing the American Dream, and our different political views. I can tell that you don't agree with my notions, and I won't agree with yours. So, I think in the interest of being civil I will agree to disagree with you if you find that's alright.

How does any of this come down to 'believing in the American Dream'. What does that even mean? Do you honestly believe all poor or marginalized people are simply not making an effort?

[yoyo8346]

I don't look at suffering and shrug, but I also don't believe that I should be forced to fund their suffering.

You're changing the subject. We're not talking about whether your tax dollars should go to welfare...

We're talking about your convoluted idea of the "American dream". I'll take your response as confirmation that you honestly believe that all poverty is attributed to laziness and "lack of will power". I'd like to see you say that to the face of someone who lost their home and belongings in hurricane Katrina and is still destitute. Wake up and smell the roses, guy. I'm done here.

[Lance Rawlings]

966 words in one paragraph, oh my word.

This is why I don't get into political discussions on a forum

Why can't we all just say "That's great that Trump is giving his first portion of his salary to conserving history" and be done? I don't care if you like him or not, these discussions just go in circles and WAY off topic.

Rawlings out.