Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I think we should shut off the money faucet once the economy gets better. Seriously, has throwing money at the problem changed anything in umpty ump years? If you knew, in one year, there would be no welfare money, no food stamps, no free school lunches and breakfasts, no tax breaks, no subsidized housing, no rewarding people for having kids, what would you do? Well, first, you would not live in the most expensive places to live - big cities - so right there that would break up the clustering of like minded people. Secondly, you wouldn't have more kids than you could afford because you would have to pay for them yourself, knowing there was no government safety net. Lastly, personal responsibility should be taught in the schools from day one to all kids not just ghetto kids. They should know the value of money, what happens to drop outs, what it takes to pay for rent, food and utilities, how to shop for things they can afford, and what a baby really costs when you have to pay for their upbringing, yourself.
Really destitute people can still rely on family/friends, religious institutions and other social organizations for day to day help.
The real problem is the "why bother if someone else will pick up the tab" attitude and the enablers that keep them down.
I think we should shut off the money faucet once the economy gets better. Seriously, has throwing money at the problem changed anything in umpty ump years? If you knew, in one year, there would be no welfare money, no food stamps, no free school lunches and breakfasts, no tax breaks, no subsidized housing, no rewarding people for having kids, what would you do? Well, first, you would not live in the most expensive places to live - big cities - so right there that would break up the clustering of like minded people. Secondly, you wouldn't have more kids than you could afford because you would have to pay for them yourself, knowing there was no government safety net. Lastly, personal responsibility should be taught in the schools from day one to all kids not just ghetto kids. They should know the value of money, what happens to drop outs, what it takes to pay for rent, food and utilities, how to shop for things they can afford, and what a baby really costs when you have to pay for their upbringing, yourself.
Really destitute people can still rely on family/friends, religious institutions and other social organizations for day to day help.
The real problem is the "why bother if someone else will pick up the tab" attitude and the enablers that keep them down.
"Once the economy gets better" ?..."someone else will pick up the tab" ? The economy won't just get better unless we're willing to change the way we relate to the real thieves in America, you know who I'm talking about, it's those guys on Wall street that we just picked up the tab for. Here we see the poor being villified for "their" welfare but not a word about the vast corporate welfare that is taking from us all and going directly to the corp. bottom line.
It's not that I can't see the problems with the family oriented welfare but I think the bigger truth lies deep in the muddied waters of TV and newspaper reporting that focus on the money we give the poor and never utter a word about their corp. masters feeding at the public trough.......Oh, and what about the "personal responsibility" aspect of the latest heist from our friend's at the big bank corp.? Maybe we have more than one "real" problem.
Education is more of a factor in getting a job than anything else. Learning to use critical thinking helps prevent you from being taken advantage of (in various ways) and making poor life choices. I didnt even nessesarily mean college. A high school diploma is a lot more than most have in a lot of ghettos. But absoloutly i would love it if everyone had the opportunity to go to college as well. The question was how can we help the people there. My answer is give them an education. Certainly not give them more money. They dont know how to manage money wisely so that won't help.
There are only x amount of college degree jobs out there. If a whole bunch of people get degrees there will be to many qualified with not enough jobs left so we will have a bunch of educated people working at retail.
I think that there will always be some sort of ghetto/slum area around each urban area. It seems that as some areas are built up and in vogue with the young professionals and the wealthy, there are also areas that are out of favour and decaying. What's important is that these decaying areas don't become too large or violent. But these decaying areas have a plus side as they are much cheaper to live in, and that's where the cities' minimum wage earners and students go to live in. If every square inch of every city were pristine and beautiful, there would only be expensive rentals and condos available to live in. There is no developer or landlord that would be able to restrain themselves on the high pricing. And the government mandating that a certain percentage of the units be priced for a lower income tenant just wouldn't be enough to house the poorer folks.
Somehow, those living in low rent areas need to take better care of their dwellings and locale, instead of abusing what they have. When passing through a ghetto area, it's sad to see that there is always much more trash strewn on the sidewalks and in the streets than in the better neighborhoods. Instead of hating where they live, they should appreciate the lower rents and see living there as a chance to save up and work on their upward mobility. And success is possible, just look at how recent immigrants will crowd themselves into a cheap rental, work several jobs each and then pool their savings into buying real estate or starting a business. And that focused drive for success is lacking in our US born poor.
Today i went through the ghetto. It made me so sad
i want to know what can be done to help them. Is there anything at all? Or do you think they should be left alone?
Help them? Like give the residents free money & food? Oh yeah, we already do... Maybe you mean give them free housing & medical,,, oh yeah we already do that. You can help whoever you want but I figure they mostly already get enough help.
There are only x amount of college degree jobs out there. If a whole bunch of people get degrees there will be to many qualified with not enough jobs left so we will have a bunch of educated people working at retail.
So who should get to go to college/get an education?
So who should get to go to college/get an education?
There are also only a finite number of colleges and they can only teach a finite number of students at any given time. There aren't enough colleges set up to teach every single young person in the US, plus there are many older people wanting to go to college also. In all fairness, only the very top student applicants should get into college and it should only be based on their academic merits and they should be able to get whatever student loans or financial aid they need in order to do it. But as it is, special allowances are made for athletes and affirmative action programs.
Otherwise, there are universities such as MIT that are making their course materials available on the internet for FREE. Many university libraries are open to all, with some charging a nominal annual fee for the entry of non-students. I understand that Harvard U charges $300 a year for access to their libraries. And our public library system is also free and completely available to the public. There are actually many inexpensive ways to get a higher education... all it takes is a person having a real passion and desire for knowledge.
Force developers back into the cities. Regentrification is working in many cities. Make them tear down the old to build the new. Make parking in center cities so expensive that people would take mass transit.
Gentrification has never helped the poor. It has only forced them to disperse away from their friends and their families and their jobs. Gentrification only helps the rich, by enabling the rich to expand to new neighborhoods where property values and taxes are low. There is a socio-culturo-economic segment in our society that numbers in the tens of millions, and you cannot make them disappear simply by bulldozing their homes or doubling or tripling the prevailing rents in their neighborhood.
Gentrification is indeed "working". It is making the rich richer and the poor poorer, which is exactly the definition of "working" in the American economy. Destroy the low-rent neighborhoods, and all the ghetto dwellers will move to the houses with 2.5 bathrooms and a horse barn, that are being vacated by the happy families dying to move into the sheeshy theater district.
I think that there will always be some sort of ghetto/slum area around each urban area. It seems that as some areas are built up and in vogue with the young professionals and the wealthy, there are also areas that are out of favour and decaying. What's important is that these decaying areas don't become too large or violent. But these decaying areas have a plus side as they are much cheaper to live in, and that's where the cities' minimum wage earners and students go to live in. If every square inch of every city were pristine and beautiful, there would only be expensive rentals and condos available to live in. There is no developer or landlord that would be able to restrain themselves on the high pricing. And the government mandating that a certain percentage of the units be priced for a lower income tenant just wouldn't be enough to house the poorer folks.
Somehow, those living in low rent areas need to take better care of their dwellings and locale, instead of abusing what they have. When passing through a ghetto area, it's sad to see that there is always much more trash strewn on the sidewalks and in the streets than in the better neighborhoods. Instead of hating where they live, they should appreciate the lower rents and see living there as a chance to save up and work on their upward mobility. And success is possible, just look at how recent immigrants will crowd themselves into a cheap rental, work several jobs each and then pool their savings into buying real estate or starting a business. And that focused drive for success is lacking in our US born poor.
Many are very dangerous to live in though. The reason they are are run down is not the people living there it is the landlords who do nothing in keeping the area up kept.
Moderator cut: Please discuss the topic, not each other.
Last edited by Green Irish Eyes; 05-30-2010 at 01:05 PM..
So who should get to go to college/get an education?
The people who want to. Some people are not smart enough nor want to go to college. You did not anwser my question is how a college education is going to help a person when there are to many people qualified with the same degree and not enough positions open.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
