Hawk: totally agree on the importance of education - I sent my eldest to Montessori school, because I could afford it. Problem with the voucher system is the number of unscrupulous "schools", and the two tier effect of good (private & voucher) and bad (public) schools. Why not just focus all the effort on making public schools the best? If taxpayers demand it, it can happen. Identify the good public schools, and copy their success, no?
I also agree that welfare isn't for people who are disinclined to work, and I think the government has finally adopted that policy too - but the obstacle is still the lack of decent jobs. You know, the ones that pay enough to live on? How can anyone lift themselves from poverty when any job they can get pays too little to cover basic living expenses, let alone save money? In spite of all the tax incentives & abatements offered to companies for job creation the past 15 yrs, the availability of jobs just keeps declining steadily. And what is available is primarily part time - who can get ahead in that environment? (If your answer is to work 2 jobs, then you haven't tried combining the schedules of two employers, neither of whom is interested in accommodating your particular schedule - I have, and it's darn near impossible, no matter how motivated you are to make it work.)
We need a government focus on encouraging the creation of decent employment, as opposed to the past policies that threw money at whomever promised to create jobs, never mind how inadequate to the needs of the people working (part time hours, low pay, no benefit jobs). We also need a government focus on preparing folks for employment, through college (way too expensive right now, as I'm learning, with my daughter in her freshman year
) or vocational schools - not everyone is college material. We need skilled tradespeople, too - but education is just priced out of reach for too many folks.
Poor people stay poor in most cases because the whole structure of our society rewards those who have money, and penalizes those who don't. Not only does it take money to make money, it also takes money to SAVE money, ya know?
PS the justification you offer for bailing out AIG is just pitiful - if there aren't any other insurers in that field, isn't that a great opportunity for someone to create one? Rewarding greed and inefficiency is bad public policy, period.
I also agree that welfare isn't for people who are disinclined to work, and I think the government has finally adopted that policy too - but the obstacle is still the lack of decent jobs. You know, the ones that pay enough to live on? How can anyone lift themselves from poverty when any job they can get pays too little to cover basic living expenses, let alone save money? In spite of all the tax incentives & abatements offered to companies for job creation the past 15 yrs, the availability of jobs just keeps declining steadily. And what is available is primarily part time - who can get ahead in that environment? (If your answer is to work 2 jobs, then you haven't tried combining the schedules of two employers, neither of whom is interested in accommodating your particular schedule - I have, and it's darn near impossible, no matter how motivated you are to make it work.)
We need a government focus on encouraging the creation of decent employment, as opposed to the past policies that threw money at whomever promised to create jobs, never mind how inadequate to the needs of the people working (part time hours, low pay, no benefit jobs). We also need a government focus on preparing folks for employment, through college (way too expensive right now, as I'm learning, with my daughter in her freshman year
) or vocational schools - not everyone is college material. We need skilled tradespeople, too - but education is just priced out of reach for too many folks.Poor people stay poor in most cases because the whole structure of our society rewards those who have money, and penalizes those who don't. Not only does it take money to make money, it also takes money to SAVE money, ya know?
PS the justification you offer for bailing out AIG is just pitiful - if there aren't any other insurers in that field, isn't that a great opportunity for someone to create one? Rewarding greed and inefficiency is bad public policy, period.
