"Living and working in England this past year has thrown into stark relief the lack of sharing and the lack of community in America".

Yeppers. And to see how bad it really is, get hold of Morris Berman's latest book: Dark Ages America, about how the sense of community here has all but been destroyed since the "ME-ME & Only ME" Reagan years.

Reagan and his individualist screedo henchmen, fellow rightist travelers, along with the stock market purveyors - basically removed the last vestiges of community and solidarity and the feeling that we're all "in this together".

Instead, the seeds from that debacle, coupled with globalization, have forced Americans into an economic survival and competition that pits each of us against each other. Hence, to even contemplate "sharing" in this ruthless dog-eat dog culture is to undermine one's own security.

As Charles Reich poignantly notes in his book, Opposing the System, Crown Books, p. 103:

"When society itself comes to be modeled on economic and organizational principles, all of the forces that bind people together are torn apart in the struggle for survival.

Community is destroyed because we are no longer 'in this together' because everyone is a threat to everyone else.

Community is exactly what needs to be condolidated now via taxes.

Adam Smith - in his Inquiry into the Causes of the Wealth Of Nations, noted there are "needs in a civilized society that a barbaric one refuses to address." (Vol. II)

He also pointedly stated:

"What improves the circumstances of the greater part can never be regarded as an inconvenience to the whole "

Other advanced nations seem to have learned that and put it to good use- to enhance domestic security for all. Ours, still steeped in social Darwinist thinking, hasn't budged mentally since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. (And I do believe child labor would still be with us, if these 'compassionate conservative' predators had their way).

Morris Berman (ibid.) refers to the implied statement that permeates U.S. society and passes for an excuse for the pathological indifference to the needs of a growing minority:

"Succeed - on your own- or be damned"

But this is balderdash. Any one of a thousand reasons and vagaries of life can be responsible for why one succeeds and not another. The American, unlike the Norwegian or Swede, is rather prepared to hang and let his lesser fellows die or perish if they don't have the same luck he had.

True, in many high tax socialist nations I've seen, there are few millionaires, and few luxury mansions. Most people live in the medium range from an income of maybe $15,000 U.S. a year to about 45,000/yr. They have a basic good home, maybe even a two car garage - but no additional luxuries like yachts, etc.

The people - by and large- are sensible enough to accept these limitations in return for an ongoing social security for the bulk of the populace. It means a more stable society overall, and also one where more human potential can be realized.

If Americans weren't so infantile in wanting to grab all material goods and not give up anything, they could secure such a stable place too. But it means sacrificing individual success for the collective welare.

But every clueless manjack here in the US of A thinks one day he will also be a millionaire. Despite the fact, as Michael Parenti showed in his book The Dirty Truths, most of the elite's wealth comes by dint of inheritance, not paid labor. (See also William Wolman and Anne Colamosca's The Judas Economy: The Triumph of Capital and the Betrayal of Work, 1997.)

Meanwhile, in the European or Canadian case, the citizen is spared having to spend enormous amounts on health care, private health insurance - or worse, having to set aside one third or more of his retirement money away to cover health costs alone. This means the U.S. person is already one third or more behind the retirement 'eight ball' before he even begins. He will have one-third less money to live off of in his "golden years" because his government doesn't regard health care as right.

Too, U. S. companies are less competitive vis-a-vis their Canadian or European counterparts, because they must shoulder enormous expenses for employee health care (those that still do) instead of the state doing it.

All because our government refuses to adhere to (or misconstrues) the injunction in the Preamble of the Constitution to "promote the general welfare". And because it refuses to recognize the unnamed rights of the Ninth Amendment.

It is time now to halt this rubbish and bring back an American collective security for all.