But the best part of the editorial to my mind lies in the following comment and counter-comment to the piece:
Marianna Landrum Wrote: And the Ryan budget takes from most of us and gives to the rich. Tax the very wealthy instead of taking away programs from others. You will have a society of the very rich and and [sic] undereducated and struggling group at the bottom. The last Republican administration started working towards that goal so now you want to finish it. A backwards looking approach.Well said, Mr. Cooper.
Paul Cooper Replied: It says a great deal about where you're coming from that you see a failure to take more from the rich as giving to them, and a failure to provide more to you as taking from you. Your sense of entitlement is grand indeed. (emphasis added)
It's a bit to take folks like the first commentator seriously when one encounters families where noone has held a job for several generations.
ReplyDeleteRather than the present system, I'd far prefer something on the lines of the CCC, at least they'd be doing something besides watching TV.
Granted, instilling a work ethic would be even better, but having to show up, on time, to perform a useful task on a daily basis would be something.
Ah, but what's the alternative if they fail to show up for work?
ReplyDeleteHow do you offer enough incentives to make people want to do more than meet the minimum required?
Therein lies the rub, the big flaw in the CCC route is that the CCC was under military discipline, which would be construed as mean or demeaning to the participants, in this day. Strangley, the adverse impact on the original Corps members was negligable, most saying it was good preparation for service life in WWII and an adventure, besides.
ReplyDeleteOnce upon a time I worked across the street from the projects, everyone over there seemed to have a new car with lots of expensive accessories, as oppossed to the older cars that populated the parking lot where I worked. It's possible that this has given me a jaundiced perspective on these things (though the nightly gunfights across the street provided some level of entertainemnt in those pre internet days, which if the Sullivan Act is to be believed, didn't really happen).
On the one hand, I don't want people starving in the streets, conversley if I wanted dependants, I would have gotten married and had children. .
I don't think there is a painless solution to this one.