During the Revolutionary War, many of the signers of the Declaration and Constitution and the fighters for the revolution lost their farms, homes and all their wealth. I wonder if they looked to the government to make them whole? Of course, the government had no income tax (lucky folks!), so it had no real resources. But I wonder about the mentality of that generation of our founders - did they expect their government, using the iron fist of power of taxation to take from those that have to make them whole again?
That is now what is demanded by the victims from the 9/11 families, Katrina, Rita, etc.
Of course, some of the reconstruction of public facilities is beyond the ability of the local or state governments to rebuild.
But for the average citizen - have we become so dependant upon government that we expect the taxpayers to make us whole for everytihng that unforrtunatley befalls us?
We have come to expect it - no, demand it - but I doubt our brave ancestors even imagined it.
And they didn’t even have the benfit of insurance.
We’ve sure come a long way, and we seem to keep on demanding that “government” (AKA taxpayers) take care of us.