Dave Mandel, Landscape designer, Seattle

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"A democratic form of socialism. Theoretically, socialism works fine in terms of distributing countries' resources fairly. But the Soviet form of socialism obviously wasn't fair. A democratic form would be to limit the maximum amount of wealth any individual would accumulate but encourage free enterprise up to that limit. There will always be people who need assistance of some form... every decent religion and philosophy expresses the idea of helping your neighbor, especially if they're willing to help themselves."

Colleen Harper, Computer sales trainer, Seattle

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"It seems to me that the proposals that are before us are in two areas: reducing aid to single mothers for leverage, or limiting the amount of time people receive aid... What I've seen that education, trade schooling, has been effective for a friend. She's doing great! I think the government needs to help and expand the education because people want to work. But there should be a deadline: the money's going to stop if you're not employed by a certain time."

Gil Gilliam, Tool designer, Kirkland

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"It's addressing a whole social issue. How to reform it? Change people's concepts of other people, and their approaches to humanity and their fellow person... Everyone basically deserves a chance. Everyone can't be on top -- can't win -- but everyone should be given a fair chance."

Petra Rousu, Travel industry executive, Edmonds

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"Self-reliance: making people responsible for their actions. It's cause and effect: if I get myself in trouble, it's my responsibility to get out of it. A key is a definite time limit for people on welfare, maybe 18 months to two years. If you've had training and help during that time, you should be able to get a job."

Preston Smith, Retired engineer, Bellevue

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"I think that the real key is to do things to motivate people to go to work if they can... by eliminating the availability of welfare payments if they are in a position to work, and adding to job training and day care to help make it possible for them to work in cases where they have a problem."

Bonnie Lebesch, Multimedia designer, Seattle

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"The key is that it's somewhere along the lines of giving people incentives to be proud of who they are and what they can achieve so they don't blame others for their position in life. I don't know how you teach that, but I think it's something that's missing."

Copyright © 1995 by the Journal American newspaper, Bellevue, WA.

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