The 'Me' Nation

I'm confused.Since when did the United States become the Independent states of Unconnected Individuals?I know, seems out of left field doesn't it? Well, what got me thinking about this was a discussion I heard on a morning radio talk show (yes, I listen to talk radio and yes I know I am a geek) about bailing out home owners on this housing/loan crisis.The premise was the proposal in the Senate for homeowner relief. You know, a person buys a house and now the loan has become uncontrollable and the homeowner may very well loose their house. The argument on the show (francene on whas.com where you can listen live) was that many people have no problem helping people who were truly needy but they were angry about the proposal to help those who just made stupid choices. Okay stupid choices;You make $30,000 a year and buy a house at $250,000 then refinance and take out more debt for things like cars, furniture, private school, etc. Then the bottom falls out of the housing market and for whatever reason you can't make your mortgage payment.Stupid choices led to this problem. Most people argued if you make a mistake you live, you learn. My problem is who do we choose to help? How do we choose to help? Or even do we help at all? The U.S. is a free market country so by those standards the general public should not help anyone for any reason. Of course that also means we shouldn't provide tax incentives for companies or bailouts for corporations or even the financial insurance on bank accounts we currently have to protect the economy if there ever should be a run on the banks. Yet we do.The U.S. also provides police protection paid by all of us. Military protection paid by all of us, and even public education paid by all of us. If we are a free market country why do we do that?If we truly believe a free market solves everything then why do we have social security or medicaid, or public assistance?Yeah, I know many politicians argue those things should also be eliminated. Everyone for themselves.We are a me nation. We like to point out to the rest of the world when we lend money or give assistance. We (as a country) also like to point out how much we give. Heck even local politicians do it. How often has some congressman/woman or senator been running for re-election and they point out how much money they brought to the district? Problem is, the politician didn't do it alone.I promise you, unless there is massive corruption monies sent to a district to build bridges, schools or companies that decide to build in these districts do not come because of the politician alone. It's also because of the people. Or in the case of public works because of the need. Don't get me wrong, a bad politician may not be able to work the system well enough to get the appropriate monies in for necessary projects, but even a great politician can't do it all alone.I think the U.S. has forgotten something important. "We the people..." The only time I hear it anymore is when someone wants to get elected. It was written for a purpose. It means all of us together decide to do things. All of us together make things happen. Not Senator so and so all by themselves or Representative what's their name. It takes all of us.Even when we screw up it's all of our problems and fault. We have to take the good with the bad you know.It just is odd to me that the large part of the general public is so hell bent on the me mentality. We don't want socialized medicine. We don't want universal health coverage. Well guess what? All you people out there that do not want socialized medicine are actually subsidizing it. So the irony is, even though you don't want to pay for the healthcare of everyone you already are.In England, Switzerland, France, Germany they all get the same medicine the U.S. gets but they force the pharmaceutical companies to charge less than a third there than they do here. These companies claim it's possible for them to charge such low prices in these countries because they can make the difference up in the high prices in the U.S. So you see every time you fill a prescription you are paying for pills in Canada, France, England, Germany, etc. You are subsidizing their universal coverage or in the case of Great Britain you are subsidizing a socialized system of medicine.That's what happens in a free market economy. You get to pay for everyone else in the worlds benefits. You just don't want them yourself.So back to the point.Why have we in the U.S. become so selfish? (yeah, I can hear the screams out there about how the U.S. sends billions in aid to hundreds of international causes. But come on. If you found yourself in a bind and had to borrow some money from a friend how long would this person remain your friend if they advertised they gave you money. Not only gave you money but HOW MUCH they gave you? What would you think of that person? You wouldn't remain friends and you would think of them as a selfish ass. So what do you think America is for constantly reminding the world when and how much we give? Face it, the act itself is suppose to be selfless and when you advertise it and the amount it means it wasn't a selfless act it was pretty darn selfish.)I get angry that it seems the people who benefit most from taxes many times do not deserve the help. Problem is, how do we choose who does or does not get help? What's the solution?Simple. We do not choose. We help. Yes some of the wrong people get helped but so do some of the right ones. Nothing in this country is done alone.Even the check out person at the grocery store is inadvertently helping hundreds of other people. They use a machine that employs thousands, they work for a company and help perpetuate the profit of this company, they pay bills that benefit others and they too shop and perpetuate the jobs of other check out people.Even as a free market economy we are so very interdependent on each other.United we stand, divided we fall.Remember that bit of insightful advice?Doesn't seem so. We don't push for Universal healthcare because we don't want to pay for the bums who are lazy to get healthcare. We don't allow expansion of social system because we are afraid someone will get something for nothing. Truth is, it doesn't matter. We already give hundreds and thousands of people something for nothing. (hell look at the Congress or the Senate, like they are actually earning their pay checks) If we united and try to help each other out no matter what got us in the mess we might just be able to pull ourselves back up.Does it mean we won't have problems again down the road? No, in life there are no guarantees. It does mean next time it will be easier to stand back up.United we stand, divided we fall.I'm not a socialist. Nor am I a communist. I just think when a society decides to pick and choose who we help then we aren't really helping anyone.Now, that doesn't mean there shouldn't be rules and guidelines. That it's a free for all. No, there has to be guidelines. I'm just not smart enough, not educated enough to give each little detail as to how to properly do all this (universal healthcare, shoring up social programs, homeowner relief) no that's the job of the elected officials. But I am smart enough, just like everyone reading this is, and powerful enough, just as powerful as all of you, to know that when it's all about me all the time then we all fail.