Ok - so you two think it's not as bad as I see it.
perhaps it's because you tend to focus on the negative (or we on the positive), perhaps it's because we simply have a lower "floor".
we just finished finding a house here in Oki to rent while we're here. My wife and I discovered we had quite different expectations about housing:
cpwill's wife said:
Look, all I'm saying is, it only has one bathroom
cpwill said:
yeah, but look! it has running water!
:lol:
But we all agree that we do have those who are homeless and so on. Some through their own decisions - others through the act of others. . . the reasons are quite varied.
which is one of the many reasons why government one-size-fits-all solutions are rarely optimal, or even necessarily net beneficial.
oh, there are lots of good ideas out there. but it's not something that
government does well. the best thing that
government can generally do is provide the open field that would allow people to move
themselves out of poverty, refuse to reward them for not doing so... and then get out of their way.
School Choice, and other educational reforms would probably be an excellent example of government plans with the ability to aid the poor.
Ending agricultural subsidies - which benefit agribusiness, but raises the price of food - would also benefit those in our society who spend a higher percentage of their income feeding themselves. In a time of food-price-inflation (which we are in), it would be especially welcome.
Getting rid of rent-control would open up a larger amount of low-income housing.
the FairTax would get rid of the highest tax that most working poor pay (the payroll tax), while making their economic life up to the poverty line tax-free.
Getting rid of minimum wage laws would allow the poorest and least-skilled amongst us access to the job market; which would keep them from being forced either onto the dole or into illegal employment.
Finding some way to (carefully) get micro-lending institutions FDIC membership, or perhaps allowing them some kind of
narrow exception to the Volcker rule might be beneficial, but you would need better study on that than cpwill-throwing-out-ideas.
Reform of the tax code (and any other government distribution of funds) to encourage marriage, and the striking down of no-fault-divorce would keep more of them in more financially stable family structures.
Encouraging HSA's would give them tangible assets which would grow over time, while reducing their health-care costs.
I've suggested a reform to the Social Security system
here: which I demonstrated would make someone who never earned more than $32,000 a year a millionaire, at no added cost to them.
there are plenty of good ideas out there. but at the end of the day, the
ultimate responsibility is the individuals.
Ending any of our attempts to help said individuals will only make the issue worse.
really? welfare reform in the 90's did precisely that; and had the effect of moving many Americans off of the welfare rolls and into employment.