You know, back to JonnyC's original post. The military is not socialist. All nations have used the military to defend themselves regardless of the type of economic or political power in place.
Public School. Not necessary. That is why "Sunday School" was started in the early 1800's to educate the kids at church in the basics. I remember in the 1980's that 4 or 5 of the existing Supreme Court judges were home schooled. The more the Feds control the schools, the more they have become "dumb downed". In 1890, 80% of the American people were functionally literate. In 1980 it was more like 70%. This ment the person knew how to read and understand a newspaper, balance a checkbook, among the few simple things. In WWII, the average education of the average soldier or sailor was 8th grade. At that time high school was like college. There were a lot of church schools, home school, and a few public schools back then. Most of the early colleges and universities were started by churches. Brown as well as Wake Forest were Baptist. Auburn University was Methodist. Harvard was started by the Puritans.
We did fine without Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid for 150 years. With the breakdown of family and churches, we acquired a "need" for these institutions. Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan get by without these. They have savings and investments as well as charities for the downtrodden. The average Japanese and Chinese save 25% of their income for retirement or disability. We also have insurance that people can buy. Problem is, people were lazy and started depending on someone else like Big Brother to take care of them. How do you think all the charities got started before government stepped in.
If we had a lot less tax, and people people saved and bought their own insurance with the money they saved in taxes, we wouldn't need the government except for military defence, roads, bridges, and such. But we as a nation have become lazy, complacent, and dependent. The more power you give big brother the more he takes.
