I would like to urge you all to check out this PBS documentary from the 1980's (it's less than 30 minutes long). Even if you completely disagree with the perspective, I still urge you to watch it all the way through. At the very least, it will give you a new perspective and offer some food for thought.
Basically, the argument is that many of the economic policies that were/are intended to help the poor, actually hurt the poor. Put differently, good intentions often lead to terrible results. Lastly, I think it is very important to understand, that the reason these policies disproportionally hurt African Americans, is because African Americans are disproportionally poor. (Maybe a more correct way to state it, is that these policies disproportionally hurt African Americans, because African Americans were disproportionally poor at the time these policies were implemented/expanded.) In other words, there is nothing about these policies that hurt African Americans exclusively; but rather these policies hurt all poor people, regardless of race.
The Book On Which This PBS Documentary Is Based
I'd love to hear your thoughts on the topic, so please, do share. Also, I've actually read the book, so if anyone wants me to clear up Dr. Walter William's arguments, I'd be happy to try and do so.
2 words
bush's fault
I hope this doesn't turn into a discussion about politicians. The relevant topic is about specific economic policies, and their effects.
This thread is going to be epic.
I am going to watch these videos. Before I do, let me rant a little.
The government enacts laws with the INTENTION to help. They end up hurting. This is what the government does. Good intentions, horrible results. People need to realize that the government is not there to hold their hand, to be their mom and dad. Smaller government is always good. Less taxes are always good.
Fuck Socialism.
I hope so. The other few posts I made in this group didn't generate much discussion.
Dude, anything dealing with Blacks, the government and poverty is sure to start a firestorm. I had a vigorous debate and discussion with my very liberal friend over the holiday on this very subject. Looking forward to seeing the videos and the ensuing debate.
You had a vigorous debate with a "very liberal friend"? So I take it they only bought 3 of Glen Beck's books and you think their grouping when firing that AK last weekend could have used a little work, then?
1) I hate Glenn Beck
2) I get my information from the BBC, not Fox News
3) By "very liberal" I mean a peace core volunteer, working in an inner city school, who loves Obama and supports Socialism.
I love how people think I am a super conservative because I support hard work and less taxes. Since when did being against theft and extortion become something with negative connotation?
Hey Monkeysama - Please give me 90% of your paycheck. You didn't work hard your life and your money should be "redistributed" to those who deserve it more. Are you happy with that? Oh, BTW, I will make sure half the money I steal from you (aka tax), is wasted and pissed away through government bureaucratic process.
I just realized that Volume 4 (titled "From Cradle to Grave") of Milton Friedman's "Free To Choose" 1980/original series touches on this subject as well; particularly, Dr. Thomas Sowell's comments in the debate portion of the video.
You can watch all of the videos, free of charge, right here.
Regarding, giving poor kids a good work ethic and work history, I'd like to see more schools offer work study programs where high school kids are allowed to work part time during the day in a job that would meet certain requirements. Learning about a manual trade or accounting or programing trading algo's would probably connect with a lot of young people that are fed up with their school systems. It also gives them a network and more practical experience than learning about the Civil War for the 5th time.
Good point. Maybe I'll do a post on vouchers, because I think a big way to solve this problem would also be to get away from the one size fits all approach to education. If schools were less insulated from market forces, I suspect some schools would offer part of their curriculum in exposing students to real world jobs for the reasons you alluded to.
The truth is that economics is a social science and not a hard science. This means that we can do all the planning in the world and create programs to do any number of things and the results could end up back firing on us. This is the same in business. I'll check out the links more in depth when I have a bit more time. Very interesting topic, though.
I couldn't agree with you more about econ not being a hard science. In fact, I created a post like that here in the Econ Group, you should check it out. I also agree that no matter how much we plan, it will often backfire I also agree that business is not a hard science. However, if you're implying that there are as many failures in business as government, I would urge you to check out the FA Hayek's "The Use of Knowledge in Society." That paper makes one realize the important of decentralized decision making, where lots of people do the planning, versus centralized decision making where small numbers of people do the planning. The reason that the decentralized version works better, at least according to Hayek, is in large part because knowledge is dispersed among the population at large and markets do a much better job of coordinating this information and producing relevant signals. It's a very interesting article and I urge everyone to check it out.
The State Against Blacks:
The State Against Blacks 2
The State Against Blacks 4
The State Against Blacks 6
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