If we survived without social security, welfare, medicare, medicaid, the IRS, Dept of Education, Fed Reserve,?

Entitlement programs create democrat voters, anyone that depends on the government for a check votes democrat.

Read your history. During the 1800s the US had its share of economic downturns. However, most of the population lived on farms--or had relatives who did. During an economic slump, a family had the land to fall back on and grow food, etc.

By 1920 that changed--the great majority (over 80%) of Americans worked as wage earners. When a serious economic slump occurred, the working people had no "fallback" position. You could no longer spend your time subsisting on the land and ride out the hard times. As a nation, we had to have a different system.

That's part of the story. Another factor is that in the 1800s, we did have both government and private aid organizations and programs. And pensions for disabled soldiers. The myth spread by faux-conservatives that there was no "welfare" in the 19th century is jst that--a myth. It did become federalized to a great degree when states were simply overwhelmed in the Depression and could not meet the needs of their population as they had in previous economic downturns.

There has also been a series of cultural shifts--these affect the elderly primarily. First, the high degree of exchange relationships (which the conservatives are so fond of praising--placing making money as a central value) has had the side effect of fragmenting extended family relationships. At one time, a grandparent always had a home with the children--today we incarcerate them in a nursing home. This is not a pattern in any one group--either liberal or conservative. I t goes across the board--with two exceptions. Among African-Americans the extended family (where it survives) is still valued. The other is among immigrant/ethnic groups where mutual support remains the norm rather than the exception.

Public education and he federal role in it was always a pert of American culture---again the myth tha tit wasn't is nothing but fiction. The homestead laws--dating back to the first decade of the 19th century--set aside parcels of public land in each new settlement for public schools. The federal role has always been tightly restricted, however. The Department of Education acted as a facilitator, not a regulator, of education until the passage of the "No Child Left Behind Act" by the neoconservative Congress/Bush administration that placed the federal government in the classroom for the first time in our history. What the long-term effects will be aren't clear--but the results so far aren't ecnouraging.

The IRS is jsut a collection department--the government has to collect revenue--fixating on the IRS is just silly--no one likes the tax collector, but someone has to do it.

The Federal Reserve is our central bank. That isn't new eitehr. We had a central bank throughout most of our history--the one major time we didn't, it was a disaster. The reasn is simple---you have to have a financial institution that can regulate money and it's flow. If you don't, commerce breaks down. In a modern industrial society, that industrial system will not function without a smooth flow of currency, whether it happens to be gold, currency, or electronic bytes. managigng that flow prevents chaos.

The Federal Reserve serves a second function--as guarantor of bank deposits. It is, in effect, an insurance company in this regard. That is also necessary in an industrial economy. During periods of economic instability, individual financial institutions--even the best managed, are highly vulnerable. If you want to uderstand why--again--read history.

But here's a hint: under the combined stress of the collapse of the housing market and the spike in oil prices, our financial system would have already collapsed entirely without the Federal Reserve. That includes your savings and checking accounts-not jsut some other guys.

The bottom line: we live in a highly complex industrial/technological society. The methods that were appropriate to a 19th century largely agricultural economy will not work. You can have those methods--but what you will very quickly find yourself doing is living in such an agrarian society. You don't get the benefits of all the mass production and technology without the necessary support systems. Liek it or not--that's the way it is.

Social security, medicare, medicaid: Because life expectancy for most of that period was about 50-60 years. Now people are living into their 80s and 90s.

Dept. of Education: When we started encountering global competition and finding out how woefully behind our students were in comparison to other countries, the government made education a priority. On paper at least.

Federal Reserve: Is a scam, and we could do just fine without it.

IRS: If you want a $500 billion military protecting you, you need to raise $500 billion somehow. Unless you'd rather rely on private or corporate donations? "The Few. The Proud. The Marines, brought to you by the new Ford F-150."

Welfare: I'm going to punt and let someone else answer this one.

Up until WW2, there were very few cures for most human ailments....if you got sick, you died. ...it didn't matter how much money you had. Now we have treatments for many former killers. To withhold that treatment because a citizen has no private insurance almost definds barbaric. Before the establishment of the Federal Reserve the US went through periodic depressions called panics creating massive problems that the US public and the business community wouldn't have had to endure had there been a Federal Reserve. Of course we could go back to the good old days before the IRS, the Dept. of Education and other modern social services, but then we'd be a 3rd world country instead of a 1st world country. If you want to see how your world would be if we returned to the 'good old days' all you have to do is go into 95% of Mexico and you'll see how it was here in the US in the 18th through the early 20th century. Take the trip, take good notes and get back to us! No kiddin'!

Things were better before the FDA as well. They took the Coke out of Coca-Cola.

Social Security is obsolete and abused. We can finally lay it to rest after the last member of America's Greatest Generation dies from Alzheimer Disease. "Yellow Dog Democrats" May my father rest in peace and my mother not remember which day to vote.

Welfare is regulated by states. So is Medicaid. Most old people on both do better with medical care than old ladies making 12k a year on their dead husbands' pensions and Social Security checks. That leaves them with something worse. Medicare. My mother with dementia.

The 16th Amendment gave the IRS a job. That is a moot issue now.

The ED was signed into law by Jimmy Carter. Need I drag us through that mud again? His approval rating was 28%. Bush is doing better than that in this day of electronic manipulation of bogus polls that refuse to release their work papers. As an aside, there was a Department of Education that was reduced to the Office of Education in 1868. Ironically, Bush recently named the Department's building after LBJ. Go figure. What an insult to Carter. Could have been deliberate if you ask me.

The Federal Reserve System did a splendid job in preventing the Great Depression that led to all of the above. It has also proven time and time again in its inability to prevent inflation though most presidents inherit the blame. The Federal Reserve System is too complex for the average American to even want to understand.

So, to finally answer your question, we need them now because a vast sea of people feel entitled by our government's sick ability to be an enabler. From public restrooms that must adhere to regulations to accommodate idiots that got themselves shot in the spine in some drive-by shooting to the white trailer trash, with no bank accounts to protect, that won't stop having babies that we see walk up the street completely naked. Europeans, as much as I hate their attitudes, at least have the nerve to wish these sort of people would just die rather than cause so many problems for society. I guess they get this attitude from all the centuries of war and plague. All we have is the Civil War, Great Depression, and a couple World Wars we waited to get involved in. We're such amateurs and yet we know what is best for everybody. At least our government seems to think so. I hope I passed the audition.

Because there is a political group who thrives on making people dependent on programs and give aways. That way they can control people and accept their gratitude for the freebees. They are called liberals. They cannot survive without the IRS to take money from those who work for it, so they can spend it on the programs and the dependency. They then need the educators for support and to poison the minds of the youth.

Tell me. What period of time has been the most prosperous for our nation? During what period of time did we have the rise of the middle class? 1946 thru present day. Nuff said.

UPDATE: The industrial revolution gave us the prosperity? OK. Yet somehow we became as prosperous as we are, and as powerful, with all these programs operating.

Look, I'm not a big fan of big gov't. I think federal SS, welfare, medicare, medicaid and Dept. of Education were mistakes. However I do believe the IRS and the Federal Reserve play vital roles. Despite what many believe, the economy of the US was full of more serious economic downturns before the Federal Reserve. Being on a gold standard was no defense against economic turmoil.

Why does he want to be a superpower? I just want to be left alone to live in peace.

I don't feel we need them. Abolish them all as far as I am concerned.

All those issues can be dealt with at a local level where the people will have more control over them and their will be les waste

"I predict future happiness for the Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them." - Thomas Jefferson

Well if your going to support small government, then you better be voting for Ron Paul because the Republicans represent BIG government.

They talk like they support small government, but then they keep voting for HUGE amounts of money in the senate and congress. Their hypocrites to the core. Thats why we are so much in debt, why government has grown in record amounts during Bush's 8 years and why Ron Paul is becoming so popular, because people are just fed up with these hypocrites!

My father replaced into born in 1916. He and my mom who lived in the process the melancholy stated the county and Salvation military. church homes additionally helped people. There wasn't what all of us understand as welfare as we talk. i do no longer submit to in recommendations the two of them speaking approximately going to the wellbeing care provider. existence expectancy replaced into plenty decrease on the time Social protection replaced into handed. i've got faith it replaced into around sixty seven. possibly sixty 5. My grandfather died in a wellbeing facility in 1957 on the age of seventy two before Medicare. i do no longer understand if he had coverage yet I doubt it. medical care replaced into very plenty greater much less costly then. medical doctors had their workplaces interior the down stairs of their properties. They made homestead calls even while i replaced right into a new child. Very different now. As now, there have been hospitals supported with the help of religions that charged little or no or no longer something. There additionally weren't the very costly existence saving techniques and medicines that are attainable now. in case you had a coronary heart attack or stroke you have been merely possibly to die.

Because corrupt politicians and corporate officers in league with them can continually invent more and more ways to re-route money and power to their absolute control...The more bureaucracy the easier the cover-up. Plausible denial ability and surprise attacks which are supplied by their thugs...

Our original govt with the original Dec. of Independence and Bill of rights was fine until greed and arrogance took hold....

Now they keep you off track by making you fight among yourselves (Americans) while they covertly and quietly get away with everything....Including murder...

They say in years to come we will live in a USA comparable to Hitlers Nazi occupation of Europe.....They do admit to a New World Order they are working towards..

Just an Opinion I could be wrong...