Originally Posted by sgtdmski

The problem of our inner cities is government made. It is the result of one failed social program after another.

Public housing. Cheap inexpensive housing for the disadvantaged. A great idea in theory, a poor result in practice. Many who originally moved into these apartments paid no rent, their month fees being paid by government. Often times the money paid was less than the market rate. Having no financial interest in the homes, what incentive did residents have to make minor repairs or take care of the facilities. Furthermore, what incentive was their for the property owner to make repairs which would have been paid for out of the owners pocket. The result is many of the poor conditions of repair that many of the buildings are found in today.

Aid to Dependent Children. The original welfare. The government paid for those in poverty who had children, to help them with food, clothing, and residence. The system rewarded single mothers with children, at first, money was paid on the basis of the number of children, however, this was soon revised. But this notion suddenly made it alright, and in most cases profitable, for the father of children to ignore and not take responsibility for their children, instead of having a father at home, the mother received a check from the government. As a result of this program, we have seen the rate of unwed mothers in the black community increase from 30% to 64%, and in the white community increase from 16% to 36%. Today, 2/3rd of all black children, and 1/3 of all children are born into single parent homes. We have seen the destruction of the family. When a married couple with two kids who both working are struggling to get by, can actually believe that a single-parent family will be doing better??

No-choice education. Of all industialized countries, we have one of the lowest education scores. We have teachers who teach children the wrong information, we have schools that pass children to get them out of their rolls. We continually spend more and more money on education, yet less and less makes it to the classroom. Our public schools are at the mercy of the teaching unions. Their responsibility is to their members, and not to education of our children. Why else can you explain the unions opposition to teacher testing. Once upon a time we had math teachers that had majored in math, and science teachers who majored in science, and so forth and so on, today we have teachers that major in education, and what are they taught, how to teach. How do we expect our children to learn, when many of the teachers themselved truly do not know the subjects that they are teaching.

Social programs one and all that have failed the very people they were invented to help. As a result today we have a bureaucracy that year in and year out demands more money, without producing more results.

THe government has failed in the inner city, the Great Society of the 1960's was dead on arrival. In our haste to establish a social safety net around those in need, we instead have established a social plantation, where the master is the government and her members who wish to continue and create new programs, and where the slaves are the poor and needy, destined to a life of poverty.

dmk