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.
The 21st Century has brought America great technology but modern life has done nothing to improve society. In fact we as a nation have spent billions on social programs- but there are more underclass people in America than ever before.
I just got back from a dream trip. My wife and I drove cross country for a month by car to really see America. We drove mostly on two lane highways far from the Interstate Highways. I wanted to see the back roads, small towns, and rural areas where people actually live.
It was a very interesting but depressing trip. I never realized there was so much poverty and ignorance in America. I saw so many people who appeared to be really struggling financially, emotionally and intellectually. I was shocked at their diction, attitude, and lack of personal respect.
I do not understand how the greatest country in the world can not do a better job at reducing the number of people who live in despair, ignorance and poverty. It seems like no matter what we do a good percentage of people will live their life in poverty and ignorance.
The 21st Century has brought America great technology but modern life has done nothing to improve society. In fact we as a nation have spent billions on social programs- but there are more underclass people in America than ever before.
I just got back from a dream trip. My wife and I drove cross country for a month by car to really see America. We drove mostly on two lane highways far from the Interstate Highways. I wanted to see the back roads, small towns, and rural areas where people actually live.
It was a very interesting but depressing trip. I never realized there was so much poverty and ignorance in America. I saw so many people who appeared to be really struggling financially, emotionally and intellectually. I was shocked at their diction, attitude, and lack of personal respect.
I do not understand how the greatest country in the world can not do a better job at reducing the number of people who live in despair, ignorance and poverty. It seems like no matter what we do a good percentage of people will live their life in poverty and ignorance.
Why?
In my opinion, you answered your own question with what I bold faced. More government programs, from subsidized housing via HUD to expansion of Medicare- and we are all aware of the housing and healthcare crises that more prevalently exists than ever. The average median salary now equates to 37% of your money being deviated to some form of tax. That figure amounted to less than 20% even many years after the New Deal. Still at every turn politicians want you to believe they don't have enough of your money to maintain a functional government and that tax cuts for any segment of the population are only causing most greater hardship: all while simultaneously paying six figure salaries via overtime to certain New York state police departments to enforce seatbelt violators (read: revenue) or $300,000 granted by Congress for Iowa State University and its crucial Universal Kitchen Design Project. In other words, government generally is the PROBLEM, not the SOLUTION.
The problem only proliferates as the government refuses to alleviate that which it is constitutionally functioned to legislate, execute, and enforce: for example our own national borders. But never fear: if say, the parking meter expires 5minutes earlier where you parked, or if you mistakingly fail to recycle a plastic bottle, government comes a beckoning and imposes fines efficiently and effectively. So long as they can get their hands on your money, American government can operate impressively day-to-day. Unfortunately this tidbit does not address the concerns of what you addressed in regards to poverty and despair in this country. But I think you get the idea.
Last edited by unknown stuntman; 05-14-2007 at 09:18 AM..
Check out Tammy's Story
This film clip shows us Tammy, who got off welfare and walks ten miles to clean at Burger King every day.
It is simultaneously hopeful and tragic, uplifting and heartwrenching.
In my opinion, you answered your own question with what I bold faced. More government programs, from subsidized housing via HUD to expansion of Medicare- and we are all aware of the housing and healthcare crises that more prevalently exists than ever. The average median salary now equates to 37% of your money being deviated to some form of tax. That figure amounted to less than 20% even many years after the New Deal. Still at every turn politicians want you to believe they don't have enough of your money to maintain a functional government and that tax cuts for any segment of the population are only causing most greater hardship: all while simultaneously paying six figure salaries via overtime to certain New York state police departments to enforce seatbelt violators (read: revenue) or $300,000 granted by Congress for Iowa State University and its crucial Universal Kitchen Design Project. In other words, government generally is the PROBLEM, not the SOLUTION.
The problem only proliferates as the government refuses to alleviate that which it is constitutionally functioned to legislate, execute, and enforce: for example our own national borders. But never fear: if say, the parking meter expires 5minutes earlier where you parked, or if you mistakingly fail to recycle a plastic bottle, government comes a beckoning and imposes fines efficiently and effectively. So long as they can get their hands on your money, American government can operate impressively day-to-day. Unfortunately this tidbit does not address the concerns of what you addressed in regards to poverty and despair in this country. But I think you get the idea.
Taxes are lower now than they've been throughout most of the second half of the 20th century, aren't they? .... You say that social spending doesn't work but country-to-country comparisons (though not completely accurate) don't support that. A lot of countries have been more successful in reducing poverty than we have been here, maybe because they tried harder? I don't know.
I was shocked at their diction, attitude, and lack of personal respect.
I would look long and hard at their upbring with regards to parents taking a proactive role in seeing to their kids participating in our public education system and doing their jobs.
How many children are allowed to spend more time in front of the idiot box, playing electroic games etc. than with books or doing their studies.
You can throw wheelbarrows full of tax dollars at the problem yet ignorance and underemployment won't go away.
I agree with the majority of the above. More however, can be added.
As the cost of living increases at a substantial rate, the majority of people's salaries do not increase. It simply cost more now to have a household than it did many years ago. Gas alone has risen to heights that many in our area cannot afford. SOme of our elderly have very low monthly checks from Social Security it is horrid. They need medication, and for many, it is what can I not take this month so I can buy groceries, pay my utilities, etc. And when they do get a cost of living raise, guess what?..what little food stamps they have been getting decreases which offsets the cost of living raise.
Working people are in bad shape as well. When you have manufacturing jobs sailing left and right to the overseas cheaper labor, you have many people who are lower middle class to just above the poverty line without jobs. What jobs are around pay much lower and often have little to no benefits and these families sink deeper down the poverty chain.
Many areas of our state are so rural it hurts to drive through. I can only imagine how they survive. I would not be surprised to see children pulled from school to find odd jobs to help the family survive.
I agree that many of us have become spoiled and use debt and credit cards to the max and then find ourselves in trouble, but the majority of people surrounding me are working poor doing the best they know how to do. They come from a time where education was not important, I'm talking college education here. Many dropped out of school and did not get a diploma or go back for a GED. What few jobs that are becoming available are so far advanced and require at least a high school diploma, these poor people get left behind. Our furniture manufacturing jobs have simply vanished for the most part around here. Cheaper overseas labor is not limited to manufacturing jobs anymore though, look at how many times you call customer service for t.v. and phones, most likely you cannot understand the person talking to you.
In my opinion, government is run by Special interest groups, large corporations and power lobbyists ( although they are being watched a bit more closely) and if these powerful people say jump, the government has to ask how high since they are up to their eyeballs in paybacks for being put into high offices of government.
Our class system is shrinking. My parents discussed this when I was a child and I see it more and more each year. Someday there will be two classes again, the rich and the poor. Yet, it is the middle class blue collar worker who holds the stability of the economic power in this country. Without us, the rich could not get richer nor could the poor rely on monthly aid.
As far as speach and the like, it could be from any one of different reasons. Around here, (I live in the South) children speak as their parents do, who picked their patterns up from their parents and so forth. Now, these children do go to school and are taught proper English, but if they do not hear it at home or around them, they will not speak it. And lets be real, many things they listen to on radio and see and hear on t.v. do not promote good grammar.
Well, when you PAY people to do all the wrong things, YOU GET MORE OF IT.
That lesson is pretty clear when you venture into the urban core of most cities. Government decided to become the Daddy via welfare, section 8, WIC, free lunches et al. Of course, the real Daddy's are in jail or selling drugs or committing crimes. They don't have a role in the anti-men welfare world created by the so-called "Great Society" programs to "end" poverty.
Government do-gooder welfare programs have destroyed millions of families. And we wonder why millions of underclass men end up the way they do....
So, you have government financing hellish, counter-culture neighborhoods and whole sections of cities. Rampant crime. Millions of fatherless youth. The work ethic has been removed from this entire sector of society.....BY GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS.
Meanwhile, the working, tax-paying middle class has to fend for themselves. They spend huge sums of money to escape the high crime, underclass areas and they CAN'T AFFORD TO HAVE MANY/ANY KIDS because housing, safe neighborhoods and acceptable schools come at a high price.
Pretty screwed up world. Pay our underclass to sit on their ass. And it's not like there isn't work out there for those willing to work. Somehow 12 million illegals find work here...
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.
