Well I actually did it. I went to Obama's and Mitt's campaign websites. I just had to give in and as you might have guessed I am disappointed. First off, you have to give your email to enter Obama's site, so I didn't. Of course this leaves me without any concept of what he has to say, but anybody that forces me to do something for their benefit always irks me.
For Mitt, well he has what he considers the critical issues laid out. All ten of them. A paragraph or so on each. Now this becomes interesting because I know people's attention spans are pretty short nowadays. So does he sacrifice content to try and catch you with a few catch phrases. And this is where I am disappointed. I understand on TV and radio you have to be quick, but a place where people can choose to take their time and really read through a policy you think he would have given the reader the choice of the quick hit and a more comprehensive look for those that might want to read further. Oh yes on the home page four issues are highlighted and it says, read further for more info, but the read further is just a few more sentences. Along with the rest of the blurbs on the ten critical issues.
So it gets me to thinking, if I was to write a platform, how in depth should I go? How much is too much and what is not enough. And with the blog format I can put together a bit more than a paragraph for each issue and just write them separately. But Mitt, but Mitt, but Mitt, you have hundreds of people working for you, they cannot come up with something better than ten critical issues and more in depth discussion. Oh well, goes back to the original question, how much do you include For now though:
One of my ten, or however much, critical issues is poverty in this country. I have discussed before, but it is something that the candidates don't seem to address. With poverty many other issues are also affected such as healthcare, which is one of Mitt's big ones. Got to get rid of Obama care you know, just got to according to Mitt. Healthcare is a critical issue. Today though is poverty and a couple of other interlinking concerns.
The overall health of our country would be enhanced by a comprehensive policy to well lets say eradicate poverty, we will make that the goal, but truth be told it will not ever be completely removed. You have to start somewhere though. The first thing we know is the war on poverty has failed so government spending to solve poverty is out. But doing nothing which seems to be the Republican mindset hasn't helped. One of the interlinking issues is the drug and sex trade. And how is that going,? ask people living on the border about the success on the war on drugs. So we got to change tactics here. And for the war on drugs I have some really controversial ideas, and I do mean controversial, so much so that I am not ready to put them on paper. Many, many people would not be ready for these ideas, but hey what we are doing now is a complete failure so it is time to change. Again I feel they are so controversial I am not ready to accept them and I thought of them. I am trying to find a more middle ground, but the situation is so bad maybe there isn't middle ground anymore. The same goes for the sex trade. Real radical ideas may need to come to the forefront to attack these problems. And I mean much more controversial than legalizing pot.
Reducing poverty though is one way to reduce the ongoing growth of the drug and sex trade. And another issue real quick about poverty now is that there is a uniqueness to American poverty. There is poverty throughout the world,but in our country there is a fast developing sub country/sub cultural within our borders that is different. And this sub culture is becoming entrenched within the lower middle class, some to the middle class and starting to creep into the upper middle class. It is hard to describe and somebody could probably write a social science doctorate on it. We have to be aware of what is going on or there will be some serious fall out and not just what you expect like rampant crime, but feudal territories, run by drug lords or other modern versions of crime and political bosses. I mentioned this in a previous post so to move on. And yes other world poverty areas have these aspects, but within a first world country that prides itself on individual success and with the resources that people in poverty have, it does present itself differently. Yeah poor people with serious amounts of resources at their disposal. Serious problems are on the horizon if not already dawning if we don't act.
So how do we act, we have to start removing some of the growth aspects of poverty and redirect the youth into something more positive and this won't be easy. Probably why the two major candidates ignore this, no one wants to have to tell people the truth. Now a chicken and egg question, does poverty beget the sex and drug trade or does the sex and drug trade beget poverty, well this one is somewhat easy. Sex and drug trade grows because of poverty. There are the obvious examples, the woman that becomes addicted to drugs sells her body to pay for the drugs, or the young man that feels no hope in the traditional job market sees income coming from the drug trade. Yes even poor people want a nice car and to impress the ladies. Think about it, for some dealing drugs is a job. Remember the idea of a job.
The above goes back to the generational welfare problem we have which I have mentioned in previous posts. We will have to educate children and reeducate adults/parents. And at the same time remove the side issues like the drug and sex trade so they can be rehabilitated back into a more normal/productive way of life. Which means we have to work with individuals in poverty that are now benefiting from poverty. We have to redirect and give purpose to those now in charge in these areas to lessen the fight with the masses. I think there would be some that would be surprised there are many smart people running the show in certain areas. They may not be well educated in the traditional sense, but they have a real good idea of what works for them. Yes I am only hinting at some of my ideas for now.
The other part of the attack for the new war on poverty involves working with the general population with the education and re education part. This means everything to getting kids in school to developing job retraining and folks some of them are not going to want to work, why, because we, as a society, taught them not to work. And don't blame them, if you haven't done anything but complain about it you are 100% part of the problem. If you see something not working and complain without purpose why are you shocked there is a problem. But I am trying not to play the blame game, but get people to be aware, there is benefit to all in eradicating poverty.
Education also means more than schools though, we are talking better parenting skills, better eating habits, (oh yeah helps with health care if poor people eat well) and most importantly we need the business community to reinvest within certain areas. And in a previous post I talked about one plan on how to reinvest in certain neighborhoods. See Martin Luther King day post about 2/3 way down or so. And for it to be successful you have to throw certain preconceived notions out the door. It is like the story of the mustard seed, you have to plant even the smallest seed and if you work with it, nurture it, etc (oh yes, readings from last Sunday) you eventually get the more dynamic mustard plant that grows strong with sheltering leaves that protects.
And if Mitt's Republicans want lower taxes,okay lets give it to those that contribute, (really contribute) to reinvesting in our country, not just for the new war on poverty, but for the country as a whole, helping with poverty is just one aspect of how people can earn tax reductions. Trickle down failed, but I have no problem with lowering taxes to those that improve the outlook of the country, by improving the economy,more people can pay taxes, more paying means everyone pays a bit less which then reduces deficits, then reduces more deficits, (less debt) and now we have changed the growth curve of our economy around and balanced the budget constructively.
Oh gee willickers Mr Wilson, even a five year can see that with the right effort we have our country back better than ever. And that is a seriously bad reference, but it is late and this is getting long. How much is too much. This went far and I still haven't said as much as I want to about real concrete proposals. So a quick hit recap.
Community reinvestment with tax incentives to those that contribute and participate
Education for parents and children, not just school education, but life skills education, can be done through the current public school system. And use of successful people to teach. Yeah even use sports to help people develop new skills, but in ways different than current system.
Stop giving money away,but build a reward system for those that participate, of course the long term reward is the goal of economic self sufficiency such as a career job, or even owning a small business. Education will be needed to change attitudes. This is not going to happen overnight, and starting as young as possible to lower the time frame.
Aggressive engagement with the leaders of the current poverty system to remove them completely from the environment or get their buy in to change and be part of the rebuilding process. Think about it, some have money to reinvest.
Understand that most immigrants don't come here to be poor, but because of barriers they end up in certain areas that are not productive for them and yes get involved in crime etc. We have to rethink the entire immigration quotas, processing, and working with certain countries to improve their economy to reduce unnecessary immigration.
Accept that what we have done and not done over the last fifty years has not worked, it may have seemed the Christian thing to do to feed people with food stamps etc, but that was only half the solution. To truly be Christian we need to treat them with respect and give them purpose, not ignore their plight, but engage it, meet them face to face, shake their hand and treat them as an equal that needs help.
Okay the above is one issue with some solutions and true solutions take more than a paragraph, so treat this as a beginning and see what you might think of to be part of the solution.
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