Where is the motivation??

I know this kid who is an immigrant from another country here. They've lived here for roughly 9-10 years. Dad doesn't work, mom works p/t under the table as a motel maid or something like that. Older 20 year old brother doesn't work. As I got talking to him a bit more about finding a job this summer, he said he wasn't allowed to work because if he does, his parent's rent goes up. He basically said that his parents make the same amount of money NOT working as they would if they had to go find a job with their education and skill sets. Both of his parents only speak VERY broken english, so it's hard enough as it is to find a job that would pay decent enough (my guess is barely above minimum wage).

At first I was fuming thinking about our welfare system and in general, the flaws of socialism. Then, I calmed down and began to consider that it's just his interpretation of the situation. If I was to assume he was wrong, then I could blame it on his parents just being lazy. If I was to assume he was right, I could definitely blame it on our system. I'm leaning toward him being right and the system because this isn't the first time I've heard of this.

Which brings me to a point of sorts: Flaws. Both Capitalism and Socialism are flawed in many ways. I'm not educated enough to go over all the points of each, but in general it seems to me that in Capitalism, the flaws that come with it is the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. In Socialism the flaws are that you can still have an extreme rich and extreme poor, but you also breed a lot of laziness.

I was listening to Glenn Beck the other day (yeah, yeah, he's a nut-case, but he can be pretty entertaining and sarcastic) and he made a good point in favor of capitalism. He was going off about how people were up in arms about some oil exec making 20 million a year salary when prices were so friggin' high. He explained that that was how capitalism works. He then went on to say why we aren't freaking out about movie stars making 20 million a movie when the cost of going to the movie and vending prices rise? Now, I know a movie ticket isn't $13 (yet), but it was an interesting point.

I'm very confused what to think. I would be anti-capitalism if I were to say "exec's of major companies and movie stars should have caps on what they can make", but I'd be anti-socialism if I were to say "let them make all the money they want; it's nobodies business".

Isn't there a middle ground?

I'm so torn on what to believe and what to stand for. I know I basically stand for decency, pride, hard work, responsibility, taking care of the sick/needy (the TRULY sick/needy), and loving your neighbor. I believe in going to war for a good cause. I'm so tired of this war we are in right now. I used to believe it was for a good cause and I still don't think we were lied to about the whole "weapons of mass destruction" thing, but I'm just tired of it. The good thing is that we don't have a death rate of say a Vietnam "conflict", but it's just getting to me. I'm not sure what to think of it anymore. I choose to support our troops there in getting the job done, but that is about the best I can think of doing. On those lines, are we the world's police? Should we be involved with "the world" or should we only take care of ourselves?

Lot's of things I'm pondering from time to time.