to our gov't, and all of the other taxes and fees that have to be paid but I don't have that kind of time. Go FAIR TAX!!!! The problem with the welfare system is not its application, but its premise that I as an individual owe anything to another individual with whom I did not enter a contract. That people find themselves in rough situations is not debatable. What is debatable is whether or not the force of the state should be used to extract money from those who earned it and to use that ill-gotten lucre to ?help the poor?. I am told by welfare advocates that society is judged based upon how it treats its weakest members. Indeed. So how would we judge a society that allows its weakest members turn their weakness into a means of gain? Suffering alone does not entitle one to anything; it does not form the basis of a claim, either morally or financially. The only time suffering forms the basis of a claim is when a law has been broken, in which case the state is obligated to pursue and bring to justice the law-breaker. I am always happy to fund the police. None of us, including Agrippa, is in a position to make accurate statements about any given welfare recipient, and there is no point in attempting to do so, because whether that recipient is a welfare queen, a disabled vet, a junkie or a serial sire is irrelevant to the