This post is animated by the letter received from two separate individuals which appears at the end of this post:
I think both of the individuals who sent this letter ( it is a form letter provided by NETWORK, A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby) are well meaning and clueless.
We have been in a war on poverty for the last 40+ years. So far, poverty is winning. Those who think we can end poverty simply disbelieve the Lord when he said the poor will always be with you. The war on poverty has been a failure for good reason.
There are only two known tools that combat poverty. They are education and opportunity. How strange that the government programs emphasize neither. The two are related in that those who see opportunity are usually willing to sacrifice themselves to get the education to grasp those opportunities. I want higher education to be seen as a right, and am having difficulty to square that with government lending schemes. The greatest tragedy in america is that students graduate from institutions of higher learning in crushing debt – slaves of the economic system. I prefer my education inexpensive and politically incorrect. I will listen to plans to create such an environment, but to date I have nothing more than a vague idea.
The other key to ending poverty is opportunity. We must create an opportunity state. Government regulation is not for the purpose of consumer safety. Government regulation has as its purpose to create barriers to competition to favor the already successful.
It is amazing how little money most folks need to meet their dreams: a nice paid for home, new vehicles, decent furnishings, and money to send the kids to college. For most folks we are talking well below five hundred thousand dollars. Most folks see that as an impossible goal. That is because the government regulates business to keep down competition and thus their opportunity to get ahead, and then steals the savings of the successful by currency manipulation.
Like the parable of the talents in the bible, money must be put to work. Investing in the government is bad stewardship, secure and safe like hiding the money in the ground. It does not go to work making more money. Money invested in business does that.
We need to review the hundreds of feet that constitute the code of federal regulation and get the government out of the regulation business creating a business environment filled with vast new opportunities. We need to end corporate welfare and encourage small business.
Finally we need to return the control of wealth to the american people by preventing currency manipulation. No one who can not plan and save for the future can expect to have a future. Under our present system if the government miscalculates the buying power of your dollar falls. Currency manipulation can only be stopped by a currency redeemable in precious metals whose value is set by the free market.
These steps will create a society where people, can plan, save, innovate and take risks. In that society there is opportunity. In that society education is a tool to advance.
The changes I propose are not easy. I do not cry crocodile tears, and beg for government bailouts. I want a society where free men and women can see that hard work and virtue will be rewarded.
A society based on government programs and equalizing taxation only brings more poverty, less freedom, more taxes, and social slavery. How those who would enslave us cry their tears, but they are montebanks, liars, and enemies of free men and women, and just like their crocodile tears, their fake concern masks viscous predators waiting to eat your children.
DAVEBROWNING
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Dear Mr. Browning:
During the remaining weeks of your campaign, I urge you to publicly
address the issue of poverty in our nation and the steps you propose to
take to cut poverty significantly in the next five to ten years.
The urgency of the need to reduce poverty escalates with the increase in
unemployment rates and due to the devastation of multiple hurricanes.
As you campaign for election in November, I will be watching ads and
listening to what you say about reducing poverty. I believe that as a
nation we have the potential reduce poverty significantly. I’d like to
know what plans you have to reduce poverty, and I ask you to share your
ideas with your constituents in the weeks ahead.
The Preamble to the United States Constitution raises the “general
welfare” as one of the responsibilities of the federal government. The
general welfare is suffering, as attested to by the Census Bureau poverty
report for 2007, released the last week of August. Although the number of
families living below the poverty threshold held from 2006 to 2007, those
below fifty-percent of the poverty level fell deeper into poverty; and
more households joined that group. The only income group with any gain in
income was the top 10 percent.
The number of persons without health insurance in 2007 was significantly
higher than the number in 2006. The good news is a decrease in the
number of children without health insurance, due to Medicaid and the SCHIP
program. However over three million children remain without regular
access to regular health care. It is frightening to think of the loss of
potential among children who lack consistent health monitoring, many of
whom are also under-nourished. Health and nutrition are integrally
related to a child’s ability to grow and develop to meet their potential.
It is critical that future generations are capable of solving national and
global problems as they continue to escalate.
I urge you to speak out, let all of us, your constituents know what you
plan to do about poverty when you are elected.
