my connection with the tea party

[kandrathe]

Indeed this is true. But even still, at the end of the day it just reinforces my original point that social democracy nation-states are a better system to live under than capitalistic warfare-states.

Show me any nation in the world devoid of Capitalism, let alone the European social democracy nation-states. Currently, many are imploding under the weight of their social burdens, and the others are implementing various austerity measures to trim government spending. And, we're not far behind full implosion ourselves as our Congress and President has approached the current crisis as an opportunity to extend the size of government and reward corporate friends with crony capitalism funneling them billions of dollars of borrowed money.

You might like --> Why Socialism Failed - by professor Mark J. Perry.

But, we can agree there is a problem, and we may even agree on the evils of corrupt crony capitalism, and the wastefulness of our perpetual wars. Where we differ is in the solution, and the role government force should play in crafting our lives. They don't create any wealth, but only take and re-purpose the wealth created by others. Governments are productivity vacuums in our economy. The bigger it gets, the smaller the rest of the economy gets.

I don't have much faith in any governments ability to gather billions or trillions in taxes and not use that power in a corrupt manner. Maybe you do.

I would rather have the freedom to craft my own life, even if that meant I'd have more responsibilities and decisions to make. Many people are willing to surrender freedom for the illusion of safety, and comforts offered by the nanny state.

Perhaps there is another way besides capitalism, but in our imperfect world with its imperfect people, only this one has had any traction in improving peoples lives. I endeavor to reduce the negatives in it, rather than pine for an unrealizable fantasy utopia.