because it has to deal with harsh reality. Essentially, there are unlimited desires but only limited resources, so tough decisions have to be made as to what does and doesn't get funded. Education spending in America already tops $500 billion a year. Most of that spending happens at the state and local level with only a small percentage coming from the federal budget. As for health care spending, we're already spending several hundred billion dollars each year for Medicare and Medicaid. Most of that goes to less than 20% of the population (the elderly). Given the massive spending on those two programs, how much would it cost to expand federal health care programs to cover everyone?

As to your friend's thesis, I agree that a great deal of human conflict arises from a scarcity of resources. However, I doubt you could say that "all" conflict comes from that. A lot of conflict has been caused by greed (or covetness) for other people's stuff. The aggressor may already have enough to meet his needs but he wants more, and that has to come from someone else.