KCMO's East Side continues to be a war zone...USA Ghettos are no escape from Sri Lanka or other violent countries...

[tablemtn]

So is there any chance the case will actually get solved, or has the local PD more or less written it off already?

[northbound74]

A few years ago when we were near 'full employment', meaning everyone who wanted or needed a job could have one or could get something fairly easily, we still had lots of employers looking to fill positions.
We also had welfare and homeless people much like we do now.
I don't see the biggest problem being the lack of jobs or too little or too much welfare.
Perhaps my parenting solution was a bit too simplistic, I realize there are dead-beats out there having kids, but it really does boil down to people knowing how to behave themselves in whatever situation they find themselves in. Until you fix that, no amount of jobs or welfare will ever fix anything.

[brewcrew1000]

Food Stamps are another thing that really ticks me off. You can go into a gas station and buy all junk food with your food stamp debit card. Why don't the idiots in washington regulate it so you can only buy staple foods like veggies, fruits, etc.

No wonder why health care is out of control, we are eating ourselves to death with dollar hamburgers and soda drinks.

The poor in this country eat unhealthy with tons of fast food, candy, junk food while the poor in Asian/Other countries are eating super healthy with things like rice, veggies, etc. Kind of messed up if you ask me.

[ckhthankgod]

Eight Great Myths About Welfare

Welfare Reform Myths / Myths about welfare reform

Five Media Myths About Welfare

Poverty Welfare Myths Facts

http://www.benchmarkinstitute.org/t_...fare_myths.pdf

[Blue Earth]

Originally Posted by ckhthankgod

Eight Great Myths About Welfare

Welfare Reform Myths / Myths about welfare reform

Five Media Myths About Welfare

Poverty Welfare Myths Facts

http://www.benchmarkinstitute.org/t_...fare_myths.pdf

Those are good links. Especially #1 and #3. Complaining about welfare has always seemed to me like blaming the victims. It's a basic part of our society to help those who are less fortunate. Just as those links point out, welfare programs are a very small part of the budget and they have actually succeeded in reducing the poverty rate. I don't think that anyone lives a comfortable life on welfare. What it does is keep people from being completely destitute.

[ykamom]

I, also, will admit to not knowing the solution to this problem. But I know it is much more complex than made out here, and halting assistance can not possibly fix it in the ways some have suggested. As far as dollar hamburgers on foodstamps, that is regulated. Do people break the rules? I don't know, but there certainly is regulation.

The Missouri Food Stamp Program (http://www.lsmo.org/Home/PublicWeb/Library/Documents/1084997283.86/doc_Food%20Stamps%20(4.1).htm#WhatCanIBuyWithMyFoo dStamps - broken link)

And I think it is a mistake to romanticize being poor in any country. Living on rice and beans, or much much less, like the poor do many places, and dying of malaria or other easily preventable diseases, is really not a model we want to follow.

No offense to all of you...I share your frustrations and understand where you are coming from. But it is so easy to rant about simple solutions that "someone" should implement. These are big problems, the solutions are difficult and far reaching.

Thanks for the links ckhthankgod. Very interesting stuff.

[aragx6]

Welfare, in the way most of you are thinking about it simply doesn't exist anymore. There are food stamps, there are section 8 vouchers and there is unemployment.

Absuses of the system can and do happen, but the reason these women are having babies is not for all the wonderful benefits. It's because they don't know any better. They've never had a good example to look up to.

We can all argue until the end of time about how to fix it, but I promise there are folks who know far more about it who are doing the same.