What is the proper role of government in the provision and funding of education heath care housing job security care of the elderly and public...

It is too late, and society has changed too much, to return to the day when government paid for almost none of these services (social safety net).  Government decisions about imports/exports, work conditions, retirement age, health care, how to handle bankrupt organizations' pension funds, etc., all affect the people that the social safety net tries to help.

The question, and its answers, are loaded with emotion for many people who think that the recipients of these services are lazy, don't want to work, etc.  We do have people in the system who think they never have to work and contribute to the tax base.  But the safety net also provides for many people who are unable to work and provide for themselves through no fault of their own.

Putting the emotional aspect aside, if we consider ourselves a civilized society, we will be judged by how we cared for our most vulnerable citizens.  The social safety net is designed to aid those most vulnerable citizens.

My opinion is that we should fund it but that we must find new, innovative ways beyond just taxes to fund it.  And there must be a balance between federal and state funding so the social safety net works without bankrupting states or the federal budget.  Services provided must be structured to be cost-effective, efficient, and actually provide them in a way that does not demean the recipient.

What is the major conflict of The Old Man and the Sea?

The central conflict of Hemingway's novella is man vs. nature.  Santiago is at odds with nature because he makes his living by it, as a fisherman.  However, the sea is not providing him with enough catch to survive on.  He is able to catch the large marlin, but the sea will not allow him to have it, and he returns to shore with nothing but the skeleton.

Symbolically, however, the conflict is representative of man's conflict with overpowering forces in society, and man's resilience against those forces.  Despite being beaten by the sea, Santiago goes to sleep dreaming of more adventures.  He may have been physically beaten, but he is not emotionally beaten.

How did military service affect the lives of those who served in World War 2?

It took millions of men who had never been far from home at all and sent them thousands of miles away to places they had never seen.  It aged them, quickly and brutally, by exposing them to carnage, destruction and death on an scale difficult to imagine.

It made them appreciate life, and led many of them to try and live it to the fullest when they returned home.

But it was difficult for some to live with the things they had seen and experienced, much less explain them to loved ones in a way that they could understand.  So many veterans of that war, my grandfather included, just buried it, and never spoke of the conflict until much, much later in their lives, if at all.

PTSD was undiagnosed at the time, and society did not adjust well to those unable to mentally deal with civilian life in a post-catastrophe world.

WHY WHEN THE AGGREGATE DEMAND CURVE SHIFTS RIGHTWARD DOES PRICE LEVEL IN THE ECONOMY RISE?

When the AD curve shifts to the right, it means that people are willing and able to buy things at a higher price level.  If people are willing and able to buy things at higher prices, then of course prices will go up because businesses will rise their prices (all other things being equal).

So imagine that people get a bunch more money (in aggregate).  They are more willing to buy stuff and so prices go up.  If supply does not go up to keep up with this demand, prices will rise -- this is demand pull inflation.

Wiesel defines indifference as a "strange and unnatural state." What is your definition? How can indifference be unnatural?in reference to "The...

I would define indifference as a state in which you do not care about something -- you do not care about what happens in a given situation or to a given person.

I think that you could say that indifference is unnatural because (you can argue) people are naturally inclined to care about things.  I think that people naturally want to take sides and "root" for one side or another in just about all conflicts.

However, Wiesel is saying that we can only be indifferent if we do not think that other people truly are people.

What are the features that make this play an absurdist or avant garde play?What characterizes this play as absurdist drama?

Some of the characteristics of absurdist drama, or theatre of the absurd, are a general sense that life has no meaning, a lack of belief in any kind of god, and absurd or unusual characters set in absurd or fantastic situations.

Cloud Nine can be called absurdist, first of all, by the fact that its characters serve more as caricatures, or types of people, rather than fully developed people. Each one serves as a type to portray the ills of colonialism. Just as the characters serve as stereotypes of colonialism, so also they embody elements of the absurd: Edward is played by a woman; Joshua, the black African servant, is played by a white man; Cathy, the four-year-old daughter, is played by a man. Her mother is also played by a man. The play has the element of the fantastic as well in that in Act 2, while being set one hundred years in the future, the characters have aged only twenty or thirty years.

The author uses these absurd elements to make a statement about gender and racial oppression, making them to be what is the true aburdities.

How does Roger Chillingworth change during the course of the novel?

At the beginning of the novel, Chillingworth is an intelligent older man who has been held captive by the Indians for over a year. When he sees Hester and finds out what she has done, he is shocked, angry, as well as regretful for what he feels is his part in causing the affair. He seems to be a rational, reasonable older man. After meeting with Hester however, he vows to discover and take revenge on the man who had an affair with Hester. As he continues to seek revenge against Dimmesdale, the novel says he becomes more and more evil looking. His entire life revolves around this revenge, and he becomes bound by it. The book even says that at times he looks like the very devil. His appearance becomes more ugly and misshapen. By the end of the novel, when Dimmesdale confesses, Chillingworth has no option except to die, because his whole life has been centered around revenge, and the revenge is no longer possible.