Steve, In answers to your questions I submit the following:

QUESTION #1 - It seems unfair to the player to my right and anyone else who called that I did not put in my "share" of the raise. Would I have been penalized any $$ if I had won the pot?

You would be penalized in as much that you could only win that portion of the pot in which you contributed an equal amount of money as everyone else. In this particular case, you would have been eligable to win the "main" pot, but not the "side pot", which would be the pot of money you did not contribute anything to.

QUESTION #2 - WHAT if someone else around the table to my left had reraised? I had no more chips in front of me. Would I have been forced to drop out when the reraise got back around to me since I did not have anymore chips available to me at that time?

Once again, you would be eligable to win only the pot or part of the pot you had money contributed. You would not be eligable to win any additional monies, created by either you not being able to contribute the total amount of money to complete the original bet or any raises or reraises.

Assume nine players in a hand, the bet was $10.00 and you only had $8.00. All players called. You would participate the the main pot of $72.00 (9 players x $8.00) and the side pot of $18.00 would be split up among the other players. On the next card the bet was again $10.00. Assume all players called again except you, of course, because you had no more moeny. Now the side pot will equal $98.00 (which you could not win) Get it?

QUESTION #3 - WHY was I allowed to call an $8 raise with just $5? Seems like an unscrupleous player could always keep his stack of chips "low" and take advantage of this...

This is true, but in the same case, what if you have a great hand and ran out of money. You would be hurting yourself for not adding more money to your stack before the hand was dealt. Each player must by in for a minimum amount (usually 10X the lowest denomination of the game.) I.e. in a 3-6 game, the buy-in would be $30.00. One is allowed to buy-in "short" the next time he purchases chips, but then the third time he must buy-in for at least $30.00 once again (the minimum buy-in for that particular game. You may be able to alternate buy-in's depending upon the house rules. Minimum, then short, then minimum, then short etc.

QUESTION #4 - WHY wouldn't they let me add more money/chips from my wallet? It seems like the more money on the table the better for the other players and the house.

If that was allowed, than the player would only add more money if he knew he had the best hand. The answer is, it is a table stake game, meaning you can only lose as much as you have in front of you. Going back to question #1 and #2, you can't be frozen out of a hand because of lack of funds. In the same case, you can't be prodded into putting in your "pink slip".