This discussion began with a request for an argument in favor of AA. However, not one has been provided. Instead we have digressed toward poverty and the need for AA in that respect. However, no one has shown how AA will help this situation.

Throughout this post there have been clamourings for the spending of more money or higher taxes. We have deen fighting this "War on Poverty" since LBJ and the "Great Society" began in the 1960's, by my count that is 40 plus years, yet we have not eliminated poverty. Time and again we have tried the method of raising taxes and spending more money, we have 40 years of history to look back upon to review the failures. Everytime we have increased the spending on the poor, we suddenly have more poor. I guess some find it easier to not work and live off the government, rather than working and struggling to get ahead like the rest of us.

Work is hard. Not everyone can invent some new fancy item and make millions. Most of us have to spend our time working up the ladder. Stock boy, to checker, to supervisor, to manager, etc. Not many people walk into jobs that pay great salaries from the start, but rather make gradually increases throughout their lifetime. When I first started working I was making $3.50 and hour, that was 21 years ago at age 16. I am now 37 and my hourly pay is around the $23.00 mark. That is a 650% increase over those years.

We have been hearing this need for living wages and increases in minimum wages for the past few years. A living wage is a myth. There can never truly be one, unless we institute price controls. We hear the talk about the need to raise minimum wages so that the poor can have more money, this too is a myth. Research the cost of a gallon of milk. Everytime the minimum wage is increase, the cost of a gallon of milk has increased by roughly the same percentage. If you increase the wage, you increase the cost of doing business, as a result, the company will increase the cost of the items they sell so that they can continue to make profits. This is simple economics. So you increase a persons wages, and at the same time prices increase, instead of having more money the person ends up worse off, because now that their wages have increased, so too have their taxes. Increases in minimum wage help government and not the people.

You talk about spending more on education. I agree. Right now for every dollar spent on education, only 36 cents makes it to the classroom. The rest is eaten up by the bureaucracy known as the Department of Education. Eliminate the bureaucracy and we can immediately double our spending on education.

AA does nothing for the poor except place more strain on them. Admission to colleges where the students have no chance for success is worse than not helping at all.

dmk

The only reason AA is still around is because certain people believe that minorities cannot make it on their own. I had an argument with my friend just today about this. I told him why I thought AA was bull, and he argued for it. He's African American by the way. The argument consisted more than AA, but the double standard between blacks and whites in this country. He continued to argue that its necessary because of what has happened in the past towards African Americans. I have a problem with this, he's usually smarter than this. How much longer are we going to drag on this slave issue? A hundred years from now are we still going to have the left bring up the slave issue? When are we going to say, Hey, most of the people born nowadays have never experienced serperate water fountains, schools, and sitting in the back of buses? When are we going to let it go? Blacks HAVE every opportunity to make something of themselves, but they are told otherwise. AA is useless, we don't need it anymore. How can you have equality when we have laws that promote anything but?

Senator Ernie Chambers?

Lol.

People do not get a level playing field. No matter what race, a kid born in the ghetto to an unwed mother who goes to cr*ppy schools does NOT have the same chance in life as a middle class kid with two loving parents living in a nice home and goes to good schools...... Actually, I am NOT crazy about affirmative action.....but I can understand why some is probably a good idea.... In theory, all Americans stand the same chance to get ahead....in reality, it is not that simple. Uh, I hate to bring this up, but I don't know any poor people (minus the mentally ill and those with vices) who enjoy all their benefits rather than have a middle class job and lifestyle. Many poor work hard at lousy jobs...and somebody has to do them.... Anybody who thinks food stamps are better than a good job..... (Yes, no American should starve, but many don't have medical insurance...) Yea, people, let's go eat at the soup kitchens and make ourselves at home in the homeless shelters...... What a great life..... Being poor doesn't make them (us) any less human...... Today, almost all healthy welfare recipients must work and are not supposed to stay on the "dole" for more than 5 years.....and they make you feel like sh*t anyway....

There are lazy bums at all socioeconomic levels....if they can get away with it. FYI

I am a 7th year college student, studying dental hygiene. Every year 34 people are accepted into this program at the college I attend. The year that I applied, 300 applications were submitted and out of those, 150 qualified for the program based on certain criteria. Recently I was told that the school was trying to make the program "more diverse" by changing their application and acceptance process in regards to "cultural diversity". Being white and coming from a middle class family, this "more diverse" idea bothers me. Not that I am racist by any means. But isn't this "more diverse" process racist in itself? Why should other races get a better chance at getting accepted into this program, because we all know it means that they think there are too many "white" people. Why should anyone even EVER need to check a box as to what race/ethnicity they are? Shouldn't we all just check a box that says AMERICAN? Everyone has an equal chance to become educated, work hard, and get what they deserve! I'm tired of other people whining that white people get things easier. We don't... just work hard and earn what is deserved, rather than being lazy and whining about it.

What it means is that it is NOT a level playing field.

Well said Sarah!! That is the exact problem I see with Affirmative Action.

In reality, every "program" that is enacted to right some wrong, almost always ends up swinging the pendulum too far the opposite direction. You then get more backlash.

Balance would be nice!