So, a list of random thoughts that started out in replies in windows that I subsequently closed:

To choose not to act is still choosing to do something. I believe most people choose to act in one way or another. The difference between conservative and liberal has more to do with whether or not to use government as a primary means in which to act.

Since we all will act anyway, the only way to act is in accordance each with his or her own best judgment.

Conservatives will often say that to use government to compell assistance to the less fortunate is some form of mugging, even if it's agreed to by a majority of the electorate. I do see their point. In a perfect world, those who are more successful would see to it that opportunity was available to those who may be talented and intelligent but disadvantaged. Unfortunately, this is not a perfect world.

Since we cannot count on the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future to teach the lessons of avarice, I choose the exercise of a little compulsion in that direction. Everyone ought to be able to get an education, and have the basic necessities that allow them to be able to concentrate on the task of acquiring said education. This is my opinion, which I have espoused because I believe that upward mobility requires a ladder and a democracy without upward mobility won't be a democracy for long. I believe this even though it will require my children to work for what they will eventually have, which they wouldn't have to do if they didn't have to compete with other people, maybe hungrier than they, climbing up to the rung upon which my children all started.

If more people choose to do the same, we do it. If more people choose not to, we don't. We can live with the tyranny of the majority, or the tyranny of the plutocracy. At least, with the tyranny of the majority, we still have a Bill of Rights to lean on. Or maybe not, since the Patriot Act. Anyone who wonders why I get so upset about the Patriot Act needs to think about that. Of course, most people don't care about why I get upset, and that's fine too.

I agree with you, that we don't know which way to push because the result of a push isn't always plain. We can only do the best thing we can figure out to do, and do it. If we are to have a democracy, I believe that the best thing to do is never to sit back and let someone else decide.

The next question is, where do we have these discussions? We must talk about it.

So, disconnected as they are, these are my thoughts.