Paragraphs are your friend, RML.

I don't know how familiar you are with medical school and residency, but trust me, no one goes through that for the money. If all you care about is money, there are much easier and more lucrative careers that don't require giving up 8 years of your post-graduate life.

And nobody's arguing that we shouldn't have to pay taxes at all, obviously people understand that we need to pay for the things we expect the government to take care of- defense, maintenance, and assistance for those who can't take care of themselves. What many of us object to is our tax dollars going to support people who are perfectly capable of supporting themselves, but don't bother to try. Having kids you can't afford and expecting the government to pay to raise them is simply irresponsible.

I get that life isn't an equal playing field and some people have more advantages or obstacles than others, but that's not an excuse for failure. It's sort of like obesity- some people are genetically blessed with a fast metabolism, and some people have to work a whole lot harder to stay in shape. But the vast majority of people, if they eat properly and exercise, can avoid being overweight. Of course, these days it seems like most people would rather sit around complaining about how hard it is to lose weight, and how unfair it is that others are naturally skinny, than actually put the effort into doing so.

So yes, there are rich people who have everything handed to them, but that doesn't give the rest of us an excuse for not succeeding. Few people are actually doomed to fail by their circumstances. My father, for example, grew up on welfare, abusive stepfather(s), ran away from home, ended up in an orphanage, the whole nine yards. He started out with nothing and ended up with a PhD from Berkeley... he's now a professor and coincidentally, one of the most conservative people I know.

P.S.- There are merit scholarships which cover not only tuition, but room and board as well. I was offered a full ride plus a stipend to go to an in-state college (which, of course, I turned down in favor of ten years of student loan payments). And many prestigious private schools now offer very generous need-based scholarships. At Duke, for example, if your parents make under ~40K combined, you don't pay tuition. So no, you don't have to be "privileged" to get a good education.