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Yes you hit the nail on the head.
What do we have,13% unemployed? Its even higher in poor communities.
What we need to do is bring blue collar jobs back. Everyone wasn't meant to go to college.
We could scream about college education all we want,some just aren't smart enough or motivated enough.
Second,(and I don't know how THIS could be ignored) sent the illegals home....that should free up a million jobs.
You are SO on to something. The tradesman aren't many these days and some are a dying breed. We will always need them though.
I also think you're being conservative with the unemployment/underemployment rate.
Exactly right, it does start with the individual. It only takes one man to step up to the plate and marry his baby mama and be a father figure. A child with a good father figure will more likely do the same thing. This has been proven time and time again. ONE MAN can make a difference in an entire limb of the family tree and have a positive impact on society! And if large groups of men step up, the multiplier effect can do amazing things for us as a country.
To be clear, women have a long way to go as well. One such improvement would be to take all the precautions necessary to not get pregnant until the right life infrastructure is in place, including money!
The welfare state means that baby mama is financially better off NOT marrying baby daddy.
If someone has no job skills, how are " like creating a resume, preparing for interviews and hunting for jobs online" going to help them actually get jobs?
When I figured out that my resume is useless and worthless, it made it easy for me to quit wasting so much time looking for a job.
Just curious... how is the social safety net gone? Don't we in fact have more social programs than we did 30 years ago? Do we not throw more and more money after these programs? And do we not have greater numbers going to college than ever before? I'm not arguing for or against, but really... I would think that now days more than ever before we have the programs in place to assist a greater percentage to succeed, but the results seem to be showing just the opposite....
Show me the social safety net for a long term unemployed 60 year old.
This is the United States of America. No one forces a person to have irresponsible sex. No one forces a person to drop out of school. No one forces a person to be ignorant when it comes to filling out forms. No one forces a person into a life of crime.
OTOH, the federally madated schools don't do that much to help either.
Instead of being so stressed out about our "welfare" state; why not take steps to prevent it such as demand higher education and accountability for those that teach and the educational administrators. How can you expect a HS graduate that didn't deserve their diploma to be able to be a productive member of society?! Answer: YOU CAN'T.
The KEY to stopping poverty is education. Until the whole current system is scrapped and a better one is put in place; you will always have poverty, fact.
Quote:
Originally Posted by WestCobb
The biggest social safety net that dissappeared from 30 years ago is a good paying blue collar job. That's the real problem facing America today in my opinion. I don't want to see an increase in government assitance programs. I want to see an increase in good paying jobs for working class Americans. I think that would go a long way toward building a better society for all of us.
AMEN!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by HappyTexan
Don't assume that. From the outside, yes it may seem that way.
You cannot just throw money at the masses (K-12) and hope it works because it doesn't. You cannot just give every student a laptop and a graphing calculator and voila..they have mastered technology.
As a previous poster said..it takes time and patience and lots of one-on-one mentoring. I tutor math in poor schools in small groups..3 or 4 max. But that is not even good enough because I only see them for one school year..then *poof* they are pushed to the next grade. Many (too many) are just pushed through the system because there are just too many. The sheer number of poor youth that are in our schools and are just herded (yes herded) through the system would SHOCK YOU.
Exactly my point! I wish I could rep you for this, but apparently I have to spread it around a bit more.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 20yrsinBranson
Well, aside from the hyperbole...yes, they do if a person follows a sensible lifestyle. One person *can* survive on minimum wage but it is not easy. With a second part time job (also minimum wage) we're talking approximately $400 a week take home.
20yrsinBranson
Why should a person HAVE to work a 2nd job to survive? That's my whole point, a LIVING WAGE is damn near impossible in this country; especially for those that are ignorant.
Expect employers to offer living wages, and you will see less poverty, and less using the system since it's more beneficial NOT to use it.
Where I live I see single mothers (for various reason, promiscuity not always the case) struggling to make ends meet. If they stay off the help, they can't afford the basics like food or shelter, or car insurance, or medical care for themselves and their child; yet if they do recieve those benefits to better themselves and their family they are vilified. *(note the ones I have in mind are enrolled full time working towards their RN degree at the local community college)
Yes, no one likes the stereotypical "welfare mom", but to prevent her children from falling into the same trap; education is the key, no doubt about it.
Our school systems are failing, therefore our country is failing; to fix one you have to fix the other first; end of story.
Why should a person HAVE to work a 2nd job to survive? That's my whole point, a LIVING WAGE is damn near impossible in this country; especially for those that are ignorant.
Expect employers to offer living wages, and you will see less poverty, and less using the system since it's more beneficial NOT to use it.
Where I live I see single mothers (for various reason, promiscuity not always the case) struggling to make ends meet. If they stay off the help, they can't afford the basics like food or shelter, or car insurance, or medical care for themselves and their child; yet if they do recieve those benefits to better themselves and their family they are vilified. *(note the ones I have in mind are enrolled full time working towards their RN degree at the local community college)
Yes, no one likes the stereotypical "welfare mom", but to prevent her children from falling into the same trap; education is the key, no doubt about it.
Our school systems are failing, therefore our country is failing; to fix one you have to fix the other first; end of story.
I would agree with you Cav Scout Wife, but the problem is that many (not all, of course, but many), people who plead poverty are simply very bad with their money. Either they do not know HOW to budget their money or they give in to "wants" in place of needs.
I have tons of empathy for single moms, and yes I know that that condition is not always due to promiscuity. However, having worked with low class people in the past, I can tell you that first of all, they do not know how (or don't care how) to budget. If they get a tax refund, they immediately P*I*S*S it away on buying "stuff" that is usually unnecessary. At Christmas time they buy presents they cannot afford and frequently go into debt (payday loans seem to be the favorite source of credit). They spend money on renting movies, netflix, cell phones, internet access, eating out, etc. Again, I am speaking from FIRST HAND PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.
I am all for providing TEMPORARY assistance to people who need it. But not if they are going to abuse the privilege or continue in a lifestyle that wastes the tax payers money on frivolous things.
As for a second job, sometimes you have to do what you have to do. People have been having second jobs for DECADES, it's nothing new. If you want to get ahead financially, you have to be willing to work for it instead of putting your hand out. It's life.
At 23 not many have grasped the "personal responsibility" meme.
They are still young with not a care in the world.
But in this case he has a child to support.
Yet at 15 a girl can make the "personal responsibility" choice about having an abortion WITHOUT notifying her parent(s).
Last edited by Quick Enough; 03-04-2012 at 04:34 PM..
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