One of my brothers challenged me regarding "systemic racism".
"If systemic racism is not the reason for inner-city ills, then what are the reasons and more important, how would you fix them? Give me five actions."
In no particular order:
End compulsory education
End compulsory education beyond some point....perhaps seventh grade. In many inner-cities students enter ninth grade with a higher reading ability than when they leave high school.
Compulsory education is not working. Compulsory education sends the message that "No matter how egregiously you fail we will continue to drag you down the field. Your failure is not your fault."
The current system fosters the same bad behaviors seen in abusive men who know their wives must take them back. The kids who want to learn suffer. Valedictorians of large inner-city high schools have to take remedial classes as college freshmen. They have been failed.
"What would I replace it with?" Nothing. If they change their mind they can go to the local community college.
Incidentally, these action items should be applied everywhere, not just inner-cities.
Remove anti-marriage incentives
We are have been so concerned about destroying women's self-esteem that we have destroyed, at this point, three generations of men in the inner city.
"But they will starve?" The women or the kids? It can be phased in where all kids currently alive get welfare but ones born after some date do not. If they chose to have kids it is on them.
Incentivize sterilization
OK, this will get me in hot-water with the Catholic Church. But one tenant of brainstorming is to throw everything on the table. Those ideas may be deeply flawed but they can serve as stepping-stones to much better solutions.
The third time a woman gets an abortion she is told it will be free if she also gets her tubes tied. Otherwise, it costs some amount of cash-out-of-pocket. Each subsequent abortion is the same deal but the cash portion increases.
If they have a child/fetus who shows symptoms of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, they get a mandatory sterilization.
Symptoms and consequences of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and subclinical FAS (source)
- Poor coordination or balance
- Intellectual disability, learning disorders and delayed development
- Poor memory
- Trouble with attention and with processing information
- Difficulty with reasoning and problem-solving
- Difficulty identifying consequences of choices
- Poor judgment skills
- Jitteriness or hyperactivity
- Rapidly changing moods
- Difficulty in school
- Trouble getting along with others
- Poor social skills
- Trouble adapting to change or switching from one task to another
- Problems with behavior and impulse control
- Poor concept of time
- Problems staying on task
- Difficulty planning or working toward a goal
So, how does that list of characteristics line up with the behaviors of a few who make life miserable for all?
If the aborted fetus shows traces of illegal drugs, the mother gets a mandatory sterilization.
Rap music
Remove Federal protections, contracts and subsidies to corporations that profit from the distribution of Rap music.
"Artists" can still create Rap music. Corporations can still distribute it if they divest all Federal business. No problem.
University
It breaks my heart to see large numbers of black people, especially women, go to university and graduate with majors that provide no economic return on their investment of time and money.
Since many of these students are first-generation college students, they have nobody to explain the fact-of-life as they relate to college educations.
Universities should be held as accountable as credit card companies. They should be forced to present students with data-driven income estimates of new graduates.
Furthermore, it should be "normalized" against the average wages of a non-college graduate and the number of years required for the student to show a net-gain vs. that non-college graduate. Be sure to tack on the student loan interest when making the calculations and the four (or five) years of wages that were lost when the student was at the University.
To prevent "gaming" the numbers, every student who graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Forensic Psychology (to give an example) must be included in the calculations. If they are a null data point, i.e. they don't report, the value of zero must be used in the calculations.
Too many colleges cook the numbers by reporting only the graduates who get jobs. That is misleading if 80% of the graduates cannot get a job or are too embarrassed to report their earnings as a dishwasher.
Good points....only if carried out.
ReplyDeleteThe White Man is never going to "fix" the Black Community. If he was going to, it would have been completed sometime in the 60 years we've been trying. It certainly won't be fixed by capitulating to Black demands over and over. That is the same as giving in to the shrieks of spoiled children over and over. The Black Community will ONLY be fixed by Black people. That is never going to happen.
ReplyDeleteWhat if all of these same pathologies are gnawing on white culture. What if the only difference between the white culture and the black culture is thirty years of exposure?
DeleteBlack culture has pneumonia. "Pop" white culture has the flu.
This is exactly why Black and White cultures are not compatible. One of them must dominate the other if they are forced to coexist. Your choice as to which it will be but as of now, White culture has lost its spine so to speak.
Delete1A) Kill the Education-Industrial Complex. Stone dead. As long as it exists any reform or correction is impossible.
ReplyDelete1B) No government employee in the United States may be a member of any union.
1C)Whatever amount any local government spends on education is allocated to the parents of each student in voucher form; said voucher may be offered as payment for student attendance at any accredited education institution through the 8th grade. It is not available in cash or any other tender and may not be "rolled over" year to year. Use it or lose it for the year.
1D) Primary education shall be through the 8th grade with fact-based curriculum only plus strong emphasis on "life skills" (math, cooking, vehicle/building maintenance, etc.).
1E) No tax receipts of any government in the United States shall be used for any educational purpose beyond the 8th grade, except for such necessary education and training required for a government employee to successfully complete the tasks and responsibilities of his or her assigned job duties; no disbursement of such funds shall be used to support attendance in courses for a general degree program. Any government in the United States shall publish annual financial data detailing such expenditures in a universal and standard format compliant with GAAP protocols.
2) Goverment-provided welfare of any sort is forbidden; no tax receipts of any government in the United States shall be disbursed for any non-compensation. Jobs of varying type may be offered by a goverment in the United States provided that goverment can display such expenditure offers sufficient value to the taxpayers; said taxpayers will have, at 4-year intervals, right of termination over any government-operated employment programs by public ballot.
3) No tax receipts of any govermment in the United States shall be used to provide medical services of any kind, except to members of the U.S. military on active duty (including reserve call-up) or for injuries suffered while on active duty. Upon completion of service obligation, such payments shall be disbused to the accredited and certified medical provider chosen by the affected veteran.
3B) What you said above RE: full financial accountability for all education programs above the 8th grade (i.e., colleges & universities).
And, as long as we're doing a list:
4)No individual shall serve more than 5 terms or portions thereof in elected office in the United States, no more then 2 terms of which may be in the same office. Any service in elected office shall be a lifetime disqualification for receiving remuneration of any type or amount from a government in the United States upon separation from elected office, except for salary, benefits and retirement commensurate with rank for service in the armed forces of the United States.
4B) No employee of any government in the United States shall be eligible for remuneration of any type or amount for a period longer than 16 years, with the exception of service in the armed forces of the United States, for which the eligible period shall not exceed 24 years; no government in the United States shall maintain, or contribute to, any employee retirement program.
I'd modify 1E) to continue to allow veterans educational benefits. The GI Bill seems to be a positive thing.
Delete"GI Bill" education benefits could go under the benfits portion of "salary, benefits and retirement commensurate with rank for service in the armed forces of the United States" but doing so undermines the "No tax receipts of any government in the United States shall be used for any educational purpose beyond the 8th grade," part of the proposal and opens a very large window for Progs to restore every penny of what we're wasting now in secondary and higher education. "It's not fair that Johnny and Suzy have to join the Army to get college education benefits..."
DeleteSo, you'll have to decide if soldiers, marines, airmen, seamen and sailors (or maybe they're called Coasties) need education benefits as an enticement.
Remember, once all federal support for higher education ends education prices will drop substantially, and the questions "who really needs a college education" and "what is a college education really worth" are still in play.
But, GI Bill benefits could be used for tech or trade school; if there was an option to extend enlistment for X period during which measured achievement advanced education would be a primary goal - which would not necessarily need electives, just the "meat" from courses to support career goals, electives can be gotten individually on the veteran's own dime - might work. The military needs welders, civil engineers, accountants, etc., etc. but not philosophers or womyn's studies grads, so "work related" might cover it.
But good point, thanks for bringing it up.
I am old enough to remember when most blacks, like whites, grew up in two parent families, with a father who worked and a mother who minded the home and the kids. In those days blacks were civil and respectful towards whites, and by and large received the same from whites.
ReplyDeleteAt that time (1950's & 1960's) blacks had been steadily emerging from poverty, with their incomes and standard of living steadily increasing for decades, and with their nuclear families still intact. Lyndon Johnson and the Democrats' so-called 'Great Society' destroyed all that. They made blacks dependent on government to survive, when before that they had been self-sufficient. And in the process they destroyed black families. Black women became brood mares, paid by the government to have children. Black men, whose reason and purpose for living had been negated by government, became bitter and alienated. Black children grew up semi-feral, and also dependent on government, and with an attitude of entitlement as well.
We now have at least THREE GENERATIONS of inner-city blacks who have been born, raised, educated, and lived lives of generational dependence and entitlement. They also hate Whitey for being at the root of all their problems. They are not 100% wrong, as it was whites in government who originated the problems back in the 1960's. (It was the aforementioned Lyndon Johnson who said, "We'll have these n*****s voting Democratic for the next 200 years")
I do not know how it will be possible to undo the current state of affairs. I don't think anyone does.
"I am old enough to remember when most blacks, like whites, grew up in two parent families, with a father who worked and a mother who minded the home and the kids."
DeleteWe remember when Black families were structured like White families. White culture dominated Black. Blacks were kept under White thumbs, so to speak. I don't mean that in an ugly way but it is the truth. The Liberalism of the 1960's allowed Blacks to escape that and to revert to Black standards. What we are witnessing is normal Black culture asserting itself.
Either Blacks are forced to conform or Black culture dominates. See Rhodesia and South Africa for examples.
Not sure rap music has much of a federal connection, so that one seems sort of pointless. And it starts to become a free speech issue, which is already sliding fast on a slippery slope.
ReplyDeleteBut weaning people off of government dependency and forcing self-reliance, motivation, and dedication to becoming useful to someone other than oneself, at an earlier age would probably be helpful, if very bad tasting medicine. The rest of us had best prepare for a turbulent transition, because it's going to be like turning loose a feral wolf pack and waiting for the worst of them to kill each other off before they come after us. They'll prey on everyone that they can. The social safety net we have now is nothing but Danegeld to keep the inner cities from erupting. Perhaps we should let them erupt and burn themselves out. It would probably do the suburbs good to have to defend themselves - we'd get a lot fewer "woke" suburban Millenials.
For society to be civilized, we'd still need to make arrangements for those who are truly incapable of taking care of themselves, but more of that burden should fall on the families. And it needs to be a much more rigorous test to decide who is eligible for government assistance. Society should quit bending over backwards trying to accommodate people who it is not cost-effective to accommodate (trying to "mainstream" people who will never be mainstream) or can take care of themselves if they had the right attitude.
If inner city issues are a result of systemic racism then we must ask who has been running those systemic systems in regards to the inner cities all this time?
ReplyDeleteList of Cities and Date When They Last had A Mayor Who was a Republican:
Baltimore -1967
Seattle - 1964
Minneapolis - 1957
Portland - 1952
Chicago - 1927
Washington, D.C. - Never
Atlanta 1879,
Detroit 1962,
St. Louis 1949,
Philadelphia 1952,
San Francisco 1964,
Houston 1933, and
Milwaukee 1908.
In short, the Democrats who cry "systemic racism" are the very one who run the system of systemic racism and have, for a very long time, run these alleged hotbeds of systemic racism.
"For society to be civilized, we'd still need to make arrangements for those who are truly incapable of taking care of themselves"
ReplyDelete"... more rigorous test to decide who is eligible for government assistance."
Complete and utter nonsense. This is the soft thinking that got us to this place. America is the most charitable country on the planet. We have more than ample organizations to handle the care and feeding of incompetents. Government has absolutely no legitimate role in this. Government ruins everything it touches.
Try running that publicly run poor farm in Los Angeles like they did in 1800's New England towns.
DeleteI don't see that the private charities have done much for the huge homeless problem plaguing so many of our major cities. Not that government programs have helped much either.
But elderly people without families or money, with sub-80 IQs, or physical disabilities that make them unemployable, neurological defects like cerebral palsy ... you just going to let their corpses lie in the streets? All the ways to institutionalize people are gone, and they aren't coming back. Too many were run like prisons ... think Bedlam and worse.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2743374/Chilling-images-Britain-s-long-lost-lunatic-asylums-revealed-new-book.html
I think what you are missing is the "truly incapable" part of my comment. I'd hazard a guess that that really is less than 5% of the people who currently receive assistance.
DeleteI think most of these problems would be solved, at various rates, under a system that encourages traditional 2-parent families. Several countries have done this before, to encourage stable population growth, and it works.
ReplyDeleteBut if our FedGov were to establish programs that incentivize 2-parent families and incorporates an educational component on how to run a household across all age groups, I think nearly all of our present societal cancers would go away.
You didn't address the problem of illegal immigration, which has a negative effect on government-managed humanitarian aid programs and all labor, union and non-union.
Regarding all the BS college degrees handed out, any college class, major, or degree that has to have the word 'studies' attached to it is automatically bogus. Can you imagine a degree in Chemistry 'Studies' ? Or Biology 'Studies' ? Or Math 'Studies', or Engineering 'Studies', or Physics 'Studies' ??
ReplyDeleteYou and I know that. But the feckless first-gen college student does not have a clue. They believe what anybody tells them.
DeleteThe student should have to sign the document listing the economic advantages/penalty before they are allowed to enroll in the program.
PS: Add any degree with "Interdisciplinary" to "Studies"
IF ONLY... sigh...
ReplyDeleteAs someone who was a first generation college student, and who, at the end of my career, worked at a university that "specialized" in first generation college students, I find the "University" portion of your post dead accurate.
ReplyDeleteI was fortunate to be older (what we would now call a "non-traditional student") by the third time I tried college. I declared as a English major for lack of a better idea at the time. Before the year was out I had figured out the lay of the land and changed my major to business, graduating with a BS that concentrated in information technology.
My first monthly paycheck was higher than my father's highest paycheck ever, even adjusting for inflation.
I saw far too many kids at my final job who were joining in things like "Sports Medicine", "Sports Marketing" and various religious majors, where each could expect their first check, assuming they could find employment other than McDonalds/Starbucks, to be less than my lowest-paid guy on the Hell Desk.
If you know a kid who is a first generation college student, and you've trod that path, figure out a way to help them, including redirecting them to a tech school if it makes sense. My son the welder's last bonus check was higher than the largest monthly check I ever made, also adjusting for inflation. He makes about a third again what his sister the accountant makes, although I'm sure that will change in due course.
And even with all that said, college and tech school isn't for everyone. For those on the left side of the intelligence bell curve, there are still good and useful jobs to be had that pay enough to raise a family if one is smart about money.
Bah, enough. No one is going to listen to us anyway. We're just a bunch of old farts-what could we possibly know?