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					Originally Posted by  Prudence
					 
				 
				I'm not disputing that many individuals have altruistic leanings, but working as individuals is inefficient and ineffective. 
			
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 Perhaps....but a bag of groceries handed over the back fence to one's neighbor is 100% efficient.  How full will that bag be after being passed around by our "charitable" politicians and bureaucrats?  
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				In this situation, yes.  And I realize that this is the fundamental point on which we will differ.  It's not that I think people are essentially bad, but I think people have a fundamental desire to shirk responsibility.  And maybe that's just me projecting my own failings onto the world around me, but in a society as spread out as ours has become, it's easy to convince one's self that someone else will clean up the messes. 
 
Perhaps in a different time, I would have had a different response.  If our world was still more community-oriented and we knew our neighbors and there would be a real social shaming of those who skipped out on their share of the community support I would choose to trust people over the government.
			
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 I think you are right but perhaps the reason we shirk responsibility and are less community-oriented can be blamed on the government.....and perhaps not.  I suppose it might be a chicken and egg thing.
Again, I'd like to thank you for your thoughtful, honest response to my posts.
 
 