He wants the government to increase taxes so that they can have more $$ to spend on politically motivated charity. That's what the european counties do. They give to causes and fund movements based on the PR factor of the moment. They are like the Pharisee who laments and cries outloud how "unworthy" he is in a very boystrous fashion so that all will look and see him putting his money into the donation barrel. Better to be like the poor widow who quietly and humbly places all that she has left into the barrel and then truns and walks away.

The day that "politician" became a career choice is the day we started losing the Republic. Let's get it back! Alan Keyes '08.

We aren't against helping those in need. We just don't believe that State sanctioned welfare is what underachievers need. The real question the left should ask is why are they so interested in dividing our nation? 

So another non-american media hype advocates spending someone else's money on the only class of people they can still con, welfare riders. Surprised no one, I hope. 

Old, Retired and glad of it.

And I was just geting used to the idea that diversity was a good thing. Time for change, I hear, though each new paradigm tests my limits. Do 'those people' know that?

The American system is hard for other countries to understand. We make a clear distinction between the public and private sector, where other countries and cultures don't. And what's hardest for other systems to grasp is that the public sector doesn't do charity. The public sector invests. We want a return on the investment. The original purpose of welfare was a temporary safety net. It was insurance. But when welfare became outright charity, it ceased being a useful instrument of social progress. It began to encourage negative social behavior. It had nothing to do with race, expecially since most welfare recipients were white.

To be clear, Porter isn't talking about welfare. He's talking about infrastructure - road, sewage, education, trash collection, etc. But he claims that out pattern of social investment in infrastructure is dictated by racial jealousy. It isn't. It's suppose to be dictated by economic progress, but it isn't that either. Theoretically, when you build a factory, you get better roads and sewage in the surrounding area, and when workers establish homes nearby, you get better schools. But even that isn't reality, either.

Instead, the investment in infrastructure is now dictated by local politics. Current reality is that most of the glaring infrastructure needs are focused on big urban areas. Most of those areas are governed by liberal Democrats, and their unholy alliance with unions, mainly teacher unions and civil service unions. There's nothing inherently wrong with unions, or even with Democrats, but look at any big city and see what that combination has brought. In exchange for the unions' political support, Democrats have systematically agreed to expensive union contracts for social services. To get the tax revenue to pay for the contracts, Democrats have raised the tax rates. That drove out the actual businesses that make up the tax base, and the cities have been squeezed by their own short-sightedness. For a long time, big cities (especially on the East Coast) suffered wave after wave of union strikes and slowdowns. Now the infrastructure has seen years of neglect.

What's more responsible for all that? "Diversity" or dysfunctional Democrat/union government in the cities?

"Americans are not less generous than Europeans. When private charities are included, they probably spend more money for social purposes than Europeans do. But philanthropy allows them to target spending on those they personally believe are deserving, instead of allowing the government to choose."

America is founded on the proposition that government isn't necessarily smarter or wiser than the common man or woman. Although that ideal has faded somewhat, our individualism is why we don't use government as our charity, not diversity.

On the other hand, his theory tends to explain why the heavily Scandinavian Minnesota is the way it is...

When you put the clowns in charge, don't be surprised when a circus breaks out.