Quote:
Originally Posted by MarchHare
Yeah, I guess I'm really not understanding what you mean by enlightened self-interest. 
I don't see too much of a difference between my boot camp experience and a modern social democracy (which you seem to oppose). Take universal healthcare, for example. In the same sense that no individual recruit can re-assemble his bed in time for inspection, most Canadians (aside from the very wealthy) can afford to pay for cancer treatments (as an example) should the need arise. But, just like recruits helping each other to achieve team success, taxpayers can pool their resources into a universal, single-payer system that provides affordable care to every citizen. That, to me, is both enlightened self-interest and serving the common good of society. Yes, some people would be better served without having to pay into the system, but I contend they are a small minority. Since I'm still relatively young, I've paid more into the healthcare system than I've derived in medical serviced, but as I age and my health inevitably declines, I will see a greater return on my tax dollars -- and you will too. |
Big difference is that most military forces around in the Western world are volunteer-based or in the case of severe national emergency, conscription. Are you suggesting that mass-mobilization of a large and diverse society is necessary or even possible?
Granted, that has worked somewhat in the Scandinavian countries, but they have static, almost uniform populations. They have also gone increasingly in a private direction to handle many complicated policy problems, such as environmental stewardship. Furthermore, these systems gain increasing problems in the face of the outside immigration which doesn't share the culture values of the country.