I read that even if we axed every social welfare program that you can name, we'd still only be halfway or less to 'give everyone the poverty line'. That's why I've been operating on an estimate of $6000 when I talk about it. Not like this'll happen in the US anyway.
I agree 100%, yet I still find the discussion interesting. The Great Republican Die Off is coming, and I wonder what a generation of under-employed, over-educated people are going to bring with them.
Reading about the youth Republican movement -- such as it is -- is very interesting. There's a small crop of young GOPers who have sane social policies and also have sane economic policies. They don't have power at the moment because not enough old fucks have died but in 15-20 years maybe discourse will be level again. In other words, futurists, don't solve aging just yet...
Tom Hartmann (there I go again) said that it makes a lot more sense to reform existing parties than it does to form splinter parties, and that due to the electoral college, no more than two parties will ever work in the United States. He made the point that it is to the benefit of Democrats everywhere to work to create a sane adversarial party so that Democrats can battle policy choices, rather than dyed-in-the-wool insanity.