If people want something then they will pay for it. If a group can't find the funds then clearly the people don't want it very much do they. The problem is that everyone wants these things, but they want other people to pay.

Well we all want prisons, and we do pay for it. Through taxes. Same for a lot of other public services.

You certainly seem to think so, but I dont know how that level of microtaxation would ever work in practice.

Most people accept that government spending has to take in a bigger picture than they as individuals can see, and that the side effect of that is that we are not always going to agree with what they spend the money on in the name of the greater good of the nation.

I don't want prisons.

Out of curiosity, your view on gun control?

So,....42 eh?

Pointless. We are only a few years away from anyone who wants a gun just being able to print one out.

I have to admit, I have never heard or thought of that before. I suppose it will be possible. Scary. We'll have to build more prisons!

lol yes he sounds like a republican!

But you need to take the good with the bad! Not all republican ideas are terrible and monsterous as us Brits seem to paint them, I agree on certain things with both of you.

I believe that the government should only have (monopolis?) dealings with purely essential services (utilities/transport/policing).

I also believe that the government should be able to compete in any other business so long as it is a sustainable business but I do not believe that they should ever write it into law that they can hold a monopoly (check the LCBO thread)!

I have worked in public and private and I have also worked on pubilc/private partnerships, in truth the best working environment was with a private business that was sold off from a public model.

In terms of the original question I have not worked in government organisations in Canada so I couldn't possibly tell you how good the benefits are but if you find yourself woking for a major organisation in the private model the benefits and pensions schemes are very lucrative from my own experience.

Funny you should mention government control of alcohol. Today, I was trying to get my head around the American philosophy of "dont touch our guns" and whether there is something "dangerous" of equivalent elevated status in Britain, and the thing I came up with is alcohol. While a case could be made (in dystopian Britain) that alcohol is harmful, the population would never accept it and rise up against any government that tried to force the issue. I suppose that's a bit like the American prohibition. It is shocking that Canada regulates alcohol so tightly.

Not quite,

if you read throught the 'another US school shooting' thread you will quickly learn that the reasons for the "dont touch our guns" philosophy is a simple matter that the country was founded on the notion that to protect the citizens freedom, America will allow the right for it's citizens to bear arms based on the notion that if the need arises the people of America can take their country back from the current government through use of 'arms'.

It in it's very sense is some kind of mind control.

As long as the people have their guns then theoretically they have not lost their rights as U.S. citizens, taking their guns away is kind of like taking away that right of freedom they love to brag about and in a sense it is one of the few things that would merit the overthrowing of the U.S. goverment.

And for British freedom, we have the right (unwritten of course) to drink as many pints as we want, so we don't have to listen to the utter bollocks being spewed by the UK government of the day. Seems a sound analogy

Here you go:

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/1...3d-printed-gun

Crikey.

Alan you're not really dispelling Arthur's suggestion that you're a [mad] republican...!

And I though 3D printing was still only at spoons and forks stage.

It was your suggestion I just filled in the blanks!