Please explain the benefits of Romney's economic plan.

I mean no offense by this to those who have been discussing this topic, but... I don't think a Jedi site is the right venue for political talk. Personally, I feel that Jedi shouldn't be involved in politics, not if their life is about spirituality. Don't get me wrong, I was out early voting like everyone else, but debating who would be the better president should be left at political websites.

i strenuously disagree.

politics pervades Everything. including the fictional star wars universe. (emporer palpatine, imperial senate, civil war, etc). we, as jedi, are part of this world. in fact we have a greater burden to try to initiate change for the better than most of the citizenry. if we did not heed this call, if we remained removed from the processes that affect us all, we will risk being ruled by evil men, to paraphrase plato.

i for one am not willing to take that risk.

Streen wrote: I mean no offense by this to those who have been discussing this topic, but... I don't think a Jedi site is the right venue for political talk. Personally, I feel that Jedi shouldn't be involved in politics, not if their life is about spirituality. Don't get me wrong, I was out early voting like everyone else, but debating who would be the better president should be left at political websites.

A good thing we're not debating anything like that then.

I can understand your position Streen but ren is right we aren't debating that

I also have to agree with Desolous that Jedi absolutely should be involved in politics

I remember hearing about someone who, as a police officer (or military personnel), asked the Dalai Lama whether they were doing the right thing since they might have to kill

The Dalai Lama replied that if they were questioning their actions then they were absolutely the right person to be doing that sort of work

I would like to hope that if there were Jedi in charge we might all be better off...

"The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself" - Plato

indeed, master akkarin. i cant wait til i anoint myself the new galactic emporer. then we will have a safe and secure society.

Or so you think. No one could regulate this entire planet. Just look at American Politics

Taxes would not be an issue if we didn't spend outside of our means. You might dislike Romney's tax policy, but I believe he would have had a better shot at getting people to work together. So far, even if Obama's ideas had been great (which I disagree with Obamacare entirely), they will not get very far because our government has ego issues.

Policies yes, politics not so much. The difference I think is discussing policies is about looking for solutions but discussing politics is about party conflict and power. At least that's how it looks to me from the media.

I don't care to rule this backwater. One of the provincial governors is more than capable.

I want the galaxy. Bwahahahahaha!

I feel that whenever someone reacts strongly for or against something, if the "against" position isn't fully understood, then it is important to both learn about the "against" position and the reasoning behind it, and then to reflect on why the strong feelings are there.

Thus, I feel that a jedi site is entirely appropriate for political talk. Is it not part of the Jedi beliefs to "seek to understand, not be understood?" I am seeking to understand. This topic is about understanding, not arguing.

Although I value the responses made so far (and I am also very happy that people are being pretty civil, because this topic is not supposed to be a debate) I wish that we had more of a conservative voice in this topic. I want to understand the conservative position as the conservatives themselves, not the campaign advertisers, see their beliefs, and the reasoning behind them. I don't wish to change anyone's mind...except my own, if I gain a better understanding of people's perspectives about the issues. The two people that I love most in this world are both conservatives -- it is possible to separate the person from their politics.

Althea, you have voiced your dissatisfaction with Obamacare. I do not want to open a debate about Obamacare, but I am interested in why you are against it. (If you do not want to post the reply, feel free to PM me.)

I would like to thank everyone for their contributions to this topic.

I disagree with the policy that everyone must have coverage. I do believe that it should be a requirement for all businesses (large or small) should provide their employees (and their families) (from full-time to part-time) with the option for employer health insurance. I would even go as far as to have companies talk with the employees which opt out of the insurance policy every 3 months to see if they have changed their mind (of course, the redundancy comes from my military back ground).

Now I have heard the argument that a lot of times people do not end up paying for their hospital visits. If the person falls into the poverty levels, I can understand why they would not be able to pay off their debt. That said, there are other options. Such as making it more appealing to the people to make donations to their local emergency services. It should also be more difficult to skimp out on paying for services rendered to you. This could be regulated by the government as easily as was when the Army required me to pay back $2600 for a bonus I wasn't able to fully fulfill. Not paying for these services should be reflected in your credit report (as it stands [as far as I can tell, because it took me forever before I could even make the first payment], I still do not have a credit history. Which tells me the government didn't report it as a credit problem. They should have). If the person cannot pay it because they are within a certain poverty level- got it.

With the poverty level, however, we also need to work on improving the minimum wage as it concerns the raising in cost of living. In terms of hand-outs, we need to reform the welfare system to a system which promotes pursuing ways to better yourself to the point you will not need to be on welfare.

Of course, this would also be very dependent upon reforming education. We need to get off of this idea that in order for someone to qualify for a lot of entry-level (beyond retail and food, though I wouldn't be surprised if it moved that way. Someone was talking about wanting to make college free for all ) jobs these days, that you need to have a college education. Our high schools need less focus on frivolous classes they can get with higher education, and replace it with common sense courses. It is sad that when I got into college, my first two courses were on time management (5 WEEKS ON TIME MANAGEMENT ALONE!) and how you can better enhance your learning process (based on motivation, intelligences and VARK theories). This is stuff which should (and easily could have) been covered in high school. Education needs an overhaul, with a lot more common sense applied to our approach.

Honestly, I blame EVERY SINGLE PROBLEM our country is facing on the state of our education. We have relapsed quite a bit over the last few decades.

Other problems I have with Obamacare:

I disagree with the statement that all companies should be required to provide health insurance which allows for abortions. That should be left to the company to decide if they want to support those stances or not. If you do not want to work for a company which does not support abortion-that is their own prerogative. Forcing companies to support abortion would cause moral conflicts for those companies that do not support it as they work to compete with other companies so they can stay in business. Which in turn causes more people to loose jobs.

Speaking of how this will effect businesses- to keep up their ability to keep up with Obamacare in it's current state, will cause a cut in jobs. Not necessarily in lay-offs, but when someone quits they may find they are not able to fill the position because of the net loss it would end up projecting in HR hiring tactics and training.

It also gives business more reasons to ship jobs overseas. In another country it would not be required for them to pay (if I recall correctly) $500 per employee which does not have health insurance.

Now there are some good elements to the Obamacare system. For example, it outlines ways to prevent chronic disease and improving health, and the fact that you cannot reject someone for health insurance based on their current state of health.

Our medical situation does need to improve. Obama wasn't wrong in taking a stab at it, but this wasn't the right answer. And the US doesn't have the money (honestly) to support a good system.