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Oh, good list of European shangri-las! All of them are cesspools. Intellectual, philosophical, socialistic cesspools. It's fitting that you offered THAT as a list of positive alternatives. It shows how far down the slope we have slipped.
I don't believe welfare is soley to blame for accultured poverty but it does do a hell of a job perpetuating it. I don't think medicaid should be cut, but food stamps and public housing assitance should go. The food stamp program is awfully open to abuse and if a person can't live somewhere without public assistance then they to move to a place where they can.
I do believe that people should be helped at least on a temporary basis because family emergencies do happen. I'm not sure about the housing assistance, though. Let's say everyone in Newark started to work at Macy's or Walmart at $7.50 an hour. What rent can they afford to pay at those rates?
The problem is that there used to be a strong blue collar workforce in this country-- at factories and such. You could support a family on those wages. But can you support a family on unskilled labor today?
It's all very complicated. To just say "we need welfare" or "welfare should be dumped" is simplistic. Especially with the economy the way it is now. The cost of living is just so high.
But not the long standing pattern of institutional racism in this country. Nah................ It couldn't be that.
If "welfare" & "handouts" upsets you so much, Wall St would be a far more efficient target of your rage than people on subsistence.
How about those Red States who clamor for fiscal responsibility, but collect far more than they contribute to the Federal tax?
Racism has caused a long-standing gap between groups in this country. No doubt about it.
I am so sick and tired of the entitlement mentality of the Wall Street crowd. Sure, give them bailouts so that they can give themselves big bonuses. And when are some of those jerks ever going to jail? They sure had no problem sending Martha Stewart to jail -- but what about the heads of Lehman Brothers and Countrywide? Scumbags.
The sad thing is that Newark, Camden, and Paterson are having cuts in police, but wealthy towns like Cedar Grove have police everywhere -- in a town with practically no crime. Don't go 1 miles an hour over the speed limit -- the C.G.P.D. will nail you. They have to have something to do between runs to the open-24-hours-a-day Dunkin' Donuts.
To us suburbanites it might be "no big deal" but if you see a 70% rise year over year and you know things are getting worse in your part of town, then yes, it is a very big deal.
Assuming the "welfare-collecting vermin" of Newark actually matter to you, of course...
No it is not a big deal. It is 17 murders increasing to 29 murders. Again, one good night of gang banging can yield 2-5 deaths. The increase is statistically meaningless, and may be random variance. It is quite possible that the murder rate has not gone up at all. The sample size and time frame are too short to reach a conclusion.
However, society-destroying collectivists will attempt to spin the 70% number into evidence of impending cataclysm in an effort to bilk more tax dollars into coming their way.
We've seen it before. It's a hustle and a con game that we are all tired of. And we finally have a governor who is doing something about it.
I do believe that people should be helped at least on a temporary basis because family emergencies do happen. I'm not sure about the housing assistance, though. Let's say everyone in Newark started to work at Macy's or Walmart at $7.50 an hour. What rent can they afford to pay at those rates?
The problem is that there used to be a strong blue collar workforce in this country-- at factories and such. You could support a family on those wages. But can you support a family on unskilled labor today?
It's all very complicated. To just say "we need welfare" or "welfare should be dumped" is simplistic. Especially with the economy the way it is now. The cost of living is just so high.
The cost of living is not any higher than it has ever been. It's funny, people have been complaining about the "high cost of living" since about 4,000 B.C. It always seems high because people never have enough money to satisfy what is essentially unlimited demand for "more" and "better". It is the nature of life, and there will never, ever be a "reasonable" cost of living. It is logically impossible given our nature.
However, it is a mistake to use the "high cost of living", which is a myth, to justify continued expansion of the collectivist welfare nanny state. You see that mistake first leads to France and Spain, and eventually to Soviet Russia and utter destruction and implosion.
Most murderers check the police employment statistics before they commit a murder.
Usually when the average police salary is above the state average, that gives them pause. Its been getting harder lately because most of the compensation is in the form of benefits which aren't reported as salary.
I've been out of crime for a number of years but now that there are less police on duty, I'm sure I'll get back into a profitable occupation.
As of March 27th (latest official NPD statistics): http://www.newarkpd.org/crime_stats.htm (broken link)
Murders are up 100%
Robberies are up 17%
Auto thefts are up 35%
Thefts are up 33%
Burglaries are up 8%
Overall crime is up 22%
The sad thing is that Newark, Camden, and Paterson are having cuts in police, but wealthy towns like Cedar Grove have police everywhere -- in a town with practically no crime. Don't go 1 miles an hour over the speed limit -- the C.G.P.D. will nail you. They have to have something to do between runs to the open-24-hours-a-day Dunkin' Donuts.
Cedar Grove has middle and upper class residents that pay a large amount of taxes for those cops.
Those same people have to pay for cops in Newark, Camden and Paterson through state aid which is paid by taxing middle and upper class residents.
As of March 27th (latest official NPD statistics): Crime Statistics (http://www.newarkpd.org/crime_stats.htm - broken link)
Murders are up 100%
Robberies are up 17%
Auto thefts are up 35%
Thefts are up 33%
Burglaries are up 8%
Overall crime is up 22%
Police crime statistics are very susceptible to adjustments when the police departments are hunting for more money. I wouldn't believe any of this unless it is audited by an independent source outside the department.
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