[quote]angry chicken wrote:
But WHY do we need to find it? In all of human history we have had a minority of successful people and a majority of peasants. That is the basic model of civilization. We simply cannot have EVERYONE making 100K a year without massive inflation.
The issue is socialism. The “poor” in our country have turned what was supposed to be a safety net and turned it into a lifestyle. We give free money to people who used drugs and have no intention of EVER trying to better themselves or find a job.
I feel that the only viable alternative to complete socialist government intervention into poor families is to make welfare CONDITIONAL. If you are a healthy adult and you want to receive welfare, pass a drug test and either A) spent X number of hours in some type of educational/vocational training, or B) volunteer X number of hours on a community service project of some kind. You can’t just GIVE people money and expect them get off their lazy ass and say, “ya know, I just feel like WORKING today for a change”. That will never happen.
Part of living in the “land of the free” is that people are free to make their mistakes. They are also free, at ANY TIME, to have an epiphany, go to school and achieve middle class status in a very reasonable time frame. The fact that they are in a culture that holds them back is not the government’s fault, nor the tax payer’s fault, yet WE get stuck paying for the problem.
One solution would be to “regulate” the culture to something more positive (outlaw gangsta rap, saggy pants, <<<insert “negative” hip-hop cultural phenomenon here>>>, etc…). But that would violate the Constitution.
My point is that we can’t have it both ways. Either the government will control what is legal music to listen to, how to dress, what to eat (NY already tried that), how to parent, what the legal bed time is for 10 year olds, mandatory homework hour, etc… You know, all the things that “good parents” do anyway. The government could just take over EVERYTHING in our “best interest”. That would guarantee that a poor black kid in an inner city would have the EXACT same opportunity as a middle class white kid in the burbs. That is the ONLY way to “guarantee” equality. The Nanny state from the cradle to the grave. But is that the world you want to live in?
Or, we could keep opportunities open to all people who find it within themselves to cultivate the will power to achieve upward momentum REGARDLESS of their circumstance. You just cant LEGISLATE that. I’m sorry, but “all” people were NOT created equal. So why the hell to we pretend that they are? Why does the president call for “every” child to get a college education? It’s bullshit!
America had the largest middle class base when “middle class” was a good union manufacturing job. Just about anyone had the ability to press that same button 200 times a day to stamp that piece of metal. Now a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) controlled robot stamps that piece of metal and the “job” is to be able to re-program the PLC to tell the robot to do something different. Not everyone is smart enough to reprogram that PLC.
We’ve outsourced and automated the jobs that MOST people are smart enough to do. And we wonder why unskilled adults are fighting to raise minimum wage to get a job flipping burgers? We need move away from a COMPLETE service economy and bring more manufacturing/construction jobs back to our country. We need to stop telling kids that EVERYONE has to go to college to get a “good” job.
We need to pass laws that REFORM unions, not eliminate them - workers DO need a voice. But they don’t need to have the power to shut down a fucking shipping terminal over ten cents. Unions CAN be a very good thing to help a poor person reach middle class income. I was able to learn a trade FOR FREE (as in no upfront cost - I do pay union dues which is how it is free). We need to put more money in to BUILDING the America (and it’s necessary infrastructure) of the 21st century. Isn’t that a better way to spend money than on welfare?
Not everyone will be “rich”. But just about ANYONE can learn a trade and find a job and work hard to better themselves IF the right kind of jobs and training are available. If the government creates the projects, the jobs will come and people will go back to work.[/quote]
Your post made me think a bit about the WHY when you referenced the privileged few against the hordes of peasants.
Back in the day, your only required “job” was to raise your family and provide for them. You did that typically by cultivating the land, hunting, etc. If you were especially industrious, you would provide products, services, etc, but it certainly wasn’t required.
We now live in a society where most of the land is either owned by the State OR by the well off, private industry. Farming and hunting to sustain your life (at least in significant numbers) is not possible in most populated areas.
So how do you equate a basic living standard which relied on nothing but your hard work, the ground your house was on, and the open forest to today, where all the basic resources of survival are owned/controlled?
I suppose before we can answer that question, another question needs to be answered. What is a “basic living standard”? Is it simply basic shelter and food? Does it include an iPhone? Does the standard need to include more stuff or should it include access to education and methods of bettering oneself?
