Being originally from Nigeria, I've always told Americans who complain about the US government trying to taking care of it's citizens, to move to Nigeria. A country where the government won't provide you food stamp if your starving and about to die.
An article by Anjan Sundaram at http://www.huffingtonpost.com titled Paul Ryan Should Visit Congo, does a better job of explaining it.
Paul Ryan says "our rights come from nature and God, not from government."
He should visit the Congo.
At the Republican National Convention last week, Paul Ryan reiterated his unwavering opposition to taxes, government health care, economic stimulus, market regulation, abortion rights, gay rights and gun control. Ryan wants small government.
Congo's government is very small. And, perhaps to Ryan's surprise, it has already achieved many of those demands.
For one, taxes in Congo are negotiable. I should know: I lived for a year in the home of a Congolese tax officer, in one of the capital's poorest districts. Only the poor pay taxes in Congo, the officer told me (it was the reason for his poverty). And so the money of the wealthy is free to trickle down via the free market.
There are no national spending projects, no drains on the treasury that might raise the federal deficit. Universal healthcare is never a topic in Congo's parliament. There will be no 'death panels' of bureaucrats deciding whether citizens should die or live. Congo's president, unlike Obama, does not invest in infrastructure. The country has no 'shovel ready' projects. The government prefers austerity -- spending as little on the people as possible -- to economic stimulus.
Congo also offers the unprecedented opportunity to bear arms and form militias. The country has hundreds of militia groups, created by civilian populations, often to defend themselves against the national army. Precisely, some might say, as America's Founding Fathers had foreseen. Congo's government has no monopoly on violence.
There will no longer be the need to lobby politicians for gun rights, and the National Rifle Association of America can be safely closed. A Kalashnikov can be purchased on any Congolese street corner without permit or identification. Prices start at $40.
Religious conservatives will find themselves at ease. Gay and lesbian people have no havens in Congolese society. The powerful churches promptly excommunicate those who have chosen abortion.
If ever a country were run by the free market, it would be Congo -- to an extent that even Ryan might not imagine. The government operates like a private corporation, providing services only at a price, and then only to the highest bidder. After I was robbed at gunpoint of nearly $3,000 in the capital, the police said I should pay for their SWOT team to track down the thieves. I was shown a prospectus of the team's successful history. My investment, I was told, in much the same way a banker might assure a client, would be profitable.
Some of the things he wrote crack me up because I've lived in a city that's no man's land and it's everybody for themselves.
You can and should read the rest here http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
