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income inequality debate

This. AAs were more stable financially in the 1950s and 1960s and married at a much higher rate due to their position of economic dominance at the time.

Everybody was married at a much higher rate in the 50s and 60s across all income and gender classifications.
 
My point isn't designed to confuse anybody. If you were trying to help someone else build a life of prosperity for themselves and their families, the cornerstones are family and education. They are to a standard of living what diet and exercise are to weight loss. Any other quick fixes are unsustainable short cuts.
I need you to be more specific in defining "families", "education", "cornerstone", and "prosperity". As PH and countless others have pointed out to you, just because 2 people make a baby doesn't mean they should or can be a healthy family, and no amount of bootstraps can fix that scenario.
 
I need you to be more specific in defining "families", "education", "cornerstone", and "prosperity". As PH and countless others have pointed out to you, just because 2 people make a baby doesn't mean they should or can be a healthy family, and no amount of bootstraps can fix that scenario.

The truth is, you don't need that at all. You know good and well what responsible family choices are, what the pursuit of gainful education looks like and how to make wise choices in earning, consuming and saving. I know you and others know these things, because I watch you all live your own lives. The mystery is not what simple choices to make.

What I need to know is why you don't believe that others are capable of making those simple choices. Finish the free public school provided to you. Don't get pregnant. Take the best employment available. Where are those expectations in your policy solutions? Do you have those same expectations for your kids? Why are other people's children incapable of fulfilling them, if yours are? I'm not talking about getting into Wake flat footed from an impoverished, single parent home with no high school degree hanging on the wall. I'm talking about not making another such home.

And I'll save you the trouble: "OMG JHMD doesn't believe in structural racism!"

Well, I think to some degree that is true. Structural racism isn't holding millions of impoverished white people back. They count too, last time I checked. I don't think blaming the problems afflicting poor white kids from Columbus County on structural racism is much of a solution for them.

But then again, I don't think blaming the problems afflicting poor black kids in the same county on structural racism is a solution for them either. A poor child of any hue in Tabor City can't exactly put his hands on the problem of structural racism and fix it. That lever isn't in his or her control. What is in his or her control factor, more than any other, is finishing the free public school in the neighborhood, not getting pregnant and working the best job available. If I'm that kid, I'll take my chances with those choices over our society reversing 400 years of history and abruptly locating the untoggling switch on structural racism.

Incentivizing the right choices that are prerequisites for any type of sustained success is far more achievable (and I would argue, effective across any demographic lines*) than any other solution. That's why I want to start there. I have my doubts about dimming the focus on those fundamental choices in favor of lap 500 on structural racism. The first 499 didn't go so well.

* Because I'm post-racial enough to trust my fellow human beings with the basic expectations not to hurt themselves and their futures. That's what a Tunnels heretic sounds like when he speaks. I wonder why you guys shriek so loudly to shout those fanciful notions down....
 
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You all must remember that the policies jhmd opposes were dreamed up, implemented, and supported by liberals. These are the representatives of the poor who are damaged by the false incentives, the free money to not get married or try hard. On local, state, and national levels- black white and Hispanic representatives support these programs for their neighborhoods, friends, and families. Why? Are they stupid idiots who cannot see the facts before them that are so plain to jhmd and Paul Ryan and Ayn rand? Are they arrogant assholes who believe their own people are too stupid and untrainable to hold jobs or use birth control? Or are they all part of a nefarious scheme to ensnare these people into perpetual dependency and therefore a reliable voting bloc with which to hold power? Jhmd is on record believing the latter. Ask him about his position on voter id and shortening voting periods.
 
The truth is, you don't need that at all. You know good and well what responsible family choices are, what the pursuit of gainful education looks like and how to make wise choices in earning, consuming and saving. I know you and others know these things, because I watch you all live your own lives. The mystery is not what simple choices to make.

What I need to know is why you don't believe that others are capable of making those simple choices. Finish the free public school provided to you. Don't get pregnant. Take the best employment available. Where are those expectations in your policy solutions? Do you have those same expectations for your kids? Why are other people's children incapable of fulfilling them, if yours are? I'm not talking about getting into Wake flat footed from an impoverished, single parent home with no high school degree hanging on the wall. I'm talking about not making another such home.

And I'll save you the trouble: "OMG JHMD doesn't believe in structural racism!"

Well, I think to some degree that is true. Structural racism isn't holding millions of impoverished white people back. They count too, last time I checked. I don't think blaming the problems afflicting poor white kids from Columbus County on structural racism is much of a solution for them.

But then again, I don't think blaming the problems afflicting poor black kids in the same county on structural racism is a solution for them either. A poor child of any hue in Tabor City can't exactly put his hands on the problem of structural racism and fix it. That lever isn't in his or her control. What is in his or her control factor, more than any other, is finishing the free public school in the neighborhood, not getting pregnant and working the best job available. If I'm that kid, I'll take my chances with those choices over our society reversing 400 years of history and abruptly locating the untoggling switch on structural racism.

Incentivizing the right choices that are prerequisites for any type of sustained success is far more achievable (and I would argue, effective across any demographic lines*) than any other solution. That's why I want to start there. I have my doubts about dimming the focus on those fundamental choices in favor of lap 500 on structural racism. The first 499 didn't go so well.

* Because I'm post-racial enough to trust my fellow human beings with the basic expectations not to hurt themselves and their futures. That's what a Tunnels heretic sounds like when he speaks. I wonder why you guys shriek so loudly to shout those fanciful notions down....
You aren't making any point, you're just stating obvious truths as if someone disagrees with them. As a society we can't abandon those of us who make bad choices in some experimental attempt to dis-incentivize those bad choices. You want people to finish school and get pregnant later, great, now what kind of policy can you make that doesn't involve removing the economic assistance that we provide to those who've made choices you don't agree with?
 
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Privatize charity.

Not a real popular opinion among charitable organizations. The social sector took a pretty good ding when Reagan rolled back entitlements expecting charity to pick up the slack.
 
$20k/year per person. Insane. Privatize this mess. Let ONW demonstrate his concern by earning money and giving it away instead of by flapping his lips.
 
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