I apologize for leading with an article, but sometimes something you see is all the jumping-off point you need:
As other graphs in the series show, before the Civil War, there was almost no tax collecting in the U.S--we raised our revenue from customs duties. But the Civil War changed that in two ways: The massive debt it left us with necessitated new taxes; moreover, in the decades that came, the pensions awarded to veterans was the birth of a modern government, that provided social services in addition to war funding.
Census Establishes Socialism in the United States
More down there...
Anyone screaming about government run healthcare and crying foul at the notion of a “welfare state” should think about where it became a “necessity.” The evil federal government took care of the soldiers it sent into battle to preserve this awesome, kickass country, and since then, the concept of a “common welfare” was either a necessity, or the Union would have dissolved.
What most teabaggers, Republicans, and jingoistic morons in pickup trucks fail to recall (so frequently) is that our Founding Fathers thought that there was such an idea of the common good for all, a “despicable evil” frequently described by Glenn Beck as Stalinistic Jesus Socialism.
Anyone who has spent time inside a university long enough have at least heard whispers of the Leipzig conference of minds. Leipzig’s positivistic conference produced a thrush of ideas that would soon blossom into the seeds of sociology, otherwise known as “the study of society.”
Those TBs, GOPers, and Getirdoners would do well to step back and see why “college taints your perspective.” It’s amazing what a little bit of education will do you, and when you can explain these gaps in understanding to those who think that all of us taking care of each other is a BAD idea, then it’s time to look that idiot in the eyes and say, “Time for your own island.”
Then you’re dropped onto a manufactured island off the coast of Dubai, no food or water, and no shelter, then right before you die of whatever gets you first, you realize all of this could have been prevented if you’d only accepted the idea that it’s okay for all of us to help each other. Too bad deliberate ignorance isn’t deadly.