MAV - I basically agree that welfare is not a very good idea (in most cases), because it tends to institutionalize and perpetuate poverty. It also makes people feel like they are useless, worthless individuals with no future.

Poverty is something that a lot of people are born into, and most of them never get out of it, but pass it on to the next generation. Along with poverty go things like domestic violence, crime, bad diet, fatherless families, drug addiction, and a host of other problems. A few individuals are so gifted that they rise above it, and make a good life for themselves...but most people just get trapped in it.

Welfare doesn't change that, it just sticks a bandaid on what is a gaping wound...but doesn't cure the illness that caused the wound.

Revolutions have been launched to try and cure the illness, and some of those were communist revolutions, while some were not. Most of the revolutions were themselves soon hijacked by ruthless men who took over the system for their own gain and betrayed the ideals which had placed them in power. That happened in Russia after 1917. It happened in France after the French revolution. In both of those cases, there was a genuine intent to redistribute wealth and end the great disparity between rich and poor. In both cases, the attempt failed. The Russians got Stalin and the gulag, and the French got a bunch of scoundrels, culminating in Napoleon.

If you want poverty to end in a society, you have to give the poor not welfare, but jobs! Not welfare but education! Not welfare, but health care! Not welfare, but a decent place to live in. Most people have a keen desire to amount to something, but they can't be kicked in the head (figuratively speaking) from the time of birth into late adolescence and still be expected to think straight and pull themselves up by their bootstraps. That's what happens to ghetto children. I had the great good fortune to be born into a relatively stable middle class family which always had enough food, enough money...and I didn't witness any violence or drug abuse or alcohol abuse in my own home. If I hadn't been so fortunate, I might not be here today at all. I don't consider myself better than some drug addict in the ghetto...I just came out of a different circumstance, that's all, so I have some compassion for the guy.

The national government simply has to be the one to change this situation, by first providing a decent level of employment and housing for the poor (indeed for everyone who needs it), because...

Private industry has little or no interest in doing so...cos they can't make a profit doing it, so they won't. And why would they, given their philosophy?

Town councils don't have the will or the resources to do it.

Nor do Counties.

And States likeswise...they have neither the will nor the resources. If they had the will, however, the resources could perhaps be found.

Only the national government can take on something that big. FDR did, and he called it the New Deal. Something similar, but even more far-reaching is needed now...otherwise poverty will remain, as will drug addiction, crime, and all the terrible social distress that has become commonplace in today's societies...both in the USA and elsewhere.

Don't think it wouldn't pay for itself...in less than a generation it would. Can you imagine what a stimulus to the economy it would be if all those who are presently poor, unemployed, and on welfare had a decent job, and were bringing home a good paycheck! My God, then private industry would have reason to smile...they'd be selling goods to those people.

As for the illegal drug problem, just make them freely available on prescription to anyone who is addicted. The addict is not a social problem, generally speaking, when he's got his fix, but he's damn dangerous when he doesn't.

So no more illegal drugs. Bingo! No more illegal drug trade. No more break-ins by desperate junkies. No more drug wars between dealers staking out turf. No more inflated drug prices. No more market for the international drug trade.

Police would have the time and resources to deal with other things of a far more useful nature, and the Mafia and the bikers would be in utter despair, because their main cash supply would be gone! Crime just wouldn't pay any more. (Legalize prostitution and you could remove their other primary source of income.)

By the way, if you think that's crazy, consider this. Coffee is a dangerous drug. It's a powerful stimulant. It royally messes up your digestive system, is extremely addictive, causes mood swings, and interferes with your body's production of adrenalin. The majority of the public is heavily addicted to it on a daily basis.

Now, if the governing powers decided, in a moment of moral fervor, to make coffee illegal.....

Then, my friend, you would soon see a drug trade that would make prohibition look like a tea party (to use an expression). There would be murder in the streets, coffee dealers everywhere, and a cup of coffee would probably cost you $25 dollars...if you had a good connection...$50 if you didn't. It would be the biggest illegal drug trade ever, and the Mafia would be laughing all the way to the bank. That's how stupid and self-defeating the present drug policies are.

- LH