Our 1st & 2nd responsibilities reflect our priorities.

Our government's first responsibility is to protect and defend the individual lives, liberty and property of its citizens. Our government's second responsibility is to promote the general welfare of its citizens. The government should not violate its first responsibility in any of its attempts to fulfill its second responsibility. No lives, no degree of individual liberty and no amount of private property should ever be sacrificed to promote the general welfare. On the other hand, the general welfare may well have to make some sacrifices to protect and defend the individual lives, and the liberty, and the private property of its citizens.

Our 1st & 2nd responsibilities reflect our priorities as a nation. One of the things that makes the United States of America exceptional is that we are constituted to prioritize individual life, liberty and private property over the general welfare.

As an American, I would not trade my liberty for everything else. Even if I was offered the whole world, my answer would be the same, "Give me liberty, or give me death." That priority is enshrined in our constitution, and it is exactly what makes America great.

 

Those who think of themselves or others, first and foremost, as members of groups rather than individuals are those who would prioritize the general welfare over individual life, liberty or private property.

 

One should note that one cannot promote the general welfare by legally stealing from one and giving it to another. In fact I'd argue that the only people who are truly benefited by the transaction are those doing the stealing.

 

Isn't government centralized military defense stealing from one and giving to others, according to your definition? The frontline soldier's life is stolen, but life is given to the non-combatants? If that is morally wrong, everyone should be responsible for their own defense.

 

Just wanted to repeat that...bricklayer is hard of hearing sometimes

 

Yes. Easy thing to say when you're an old dude sitting in his rocking chair watching Fox News.

 

Absolutely.
That doesn't preclude a person from voluntarily placing themselves in harms way for the benefit of others, his own remuneration or whatever other reasons or motivations he may have.

 

I'd question the hard line between the two. There's a lot of scope of interpretation of "general welfare" (and some for "lives", "liberty", "property" and "citizens" for that matter) which could at the very least lead to some overlap.

What if your liberty was impacting the liberty of other Americans?

 

"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual." - Thomas Jefferson

 

He definitely tends to regurgitate his same hypotheses over and over again. Now, to his credit, at least his posts are not usually just parroting RW trash blog talking points, like those of too many other RW posters on here.

 

Where do you stand on healthcare for people who can't buy it? Is it life or welfare?

 

You're right about that. I only attack his ideas when he seems to be passing them off as truth.
And he does tend to do that sometimes.

 

The old dudes that wrote our constitution had rocking chairs, but they did not have Fox News.

 

Individual liberty extends to all individuals.

 

Are you referring to medical care?

 

The limits to our lives, liberty and private property is defined by the lives, liberty and property of our fellow citizens.
Neither individual life, liberty or private property should ever be limited in the pursuit of the general welfare.

 

That's why they did such a good job

 

They did! They prioritized individual life, liberty and private property over the general welfare. There is no other country in the world that is constituted to prioritize the individual over the general welfare.

 

If it wasn't a voluntary transaction then you might be right.

In this country, everybody wearing the uniform signed the line voluntarily, as an individual, in pursuit of their own ambitions.

So.. in short... no.

 

Perfect! All we have to do now is get rid of Fox News!

 

I don't watch TV. I don't participate in "social media". I've never taken a selfie or photographed my meal. I've read well over a hundred books for every video game I've played. I just completed my thirty fifth year in business. I've been self-employed since I was twenty two years old. I take in a lot of information, and then make up my own mind.

"Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked."
We cannot altogether avoid the counsel of the wicked, but we don't have to walk in it.

 

The US does not conscript, military service is voluntary. Defense funding is not wealth redistribution.

 

Nope we all benefit from mutual defense we all benefit from good roads and an orderly society. The only people who truly benefit from the welfare state are those that run it.

 

Don’t be too hard on yourself. Many continue to make those same mistakes. It’s sad to see that like yours, their lives will have been nothing more than the dash between DOB and DOD

Can you name someone that doesn’t walk in it?