Elizabeth Warren recently spoke about how we all need government and each other to succeed in life.
She was appropriately criticized for implying that individual initiative is not the driving force behind personal accomplishment. However, her point, that government provides necessary assistance for all of us is unquestionably true. Here’s what government does for us and the reason it should be appreciated and supported.
What Our Government Provides Us:
· Military Protection
· Good Suburban public schools throughout the U.S. and in many urban area schools that often stabilize children in dysfunctional family situations
· Roads and Bridges
· Colleges and Universities: community colleges provide an inexpensive first two years of college great state colleges including: University of Michigan, Virginia, University of California at Berkley, Davis, and UCLA; University of Maryland, Florida, Georgia, and Ohio State University
· Police and Fire Departments
· Social Security
· Medicare
· the supremacy of the rule of law by having an independent court system with very little corruption, among judges, politicians and police
· Regulate food and safety, licenses for people in certain occupations and regulate “measures”. For example when we pull into a gas station we get the amount that we pay for and prices are posted publicly
· Establish a minimum wage, unemployment insurance, job development, job health and safety laws
· Medicaid to make sure elderly and children are not left defenseless to life’s vulnerabilities
· Provide a public health system to prevent disease and an emergency room for everyone irrespective of their ability to pay for care if emergent help is required
· Run the sewer systems to prevent flooding and dispose waste
· Ensure clean drinking water
· Title IX - which provided equality for women in sports which has helped lead to equality in other areas of life
· Food so no one starves or consistently suffers from hunger/malnutrition
· Ensure no one has to live on the street or freeze to death
· Remove snow in harsh conditions
· Affordable housing and energy (fuel assistance)
· Environmental protection against pollutants
· Public Libraries
· Loans and grants if one can’t afford to go to college on your own
· Unemployment system if one is temporarily laid off from work.
· Ensure open green spaces including parks
· Guarantee bank deposits to ensure consumers guaranteed $100,000 through FDIC of their deposits secured.
· Enforce anti-discriminatory and civil rights laws
· Head Start for pre-school education for the children of the working-poor
· Assist industries that focus on sustainable energy, such as solar and wind turbines, by providing tax credits
· Public works departments
· National Parks
· Development of the internet and satellites and sell and sale of bandwidth for cell phones
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