So What's Your Plan?

It has occurred to me that we are both falling into the same trap. I am telling you what you and your ilk want to do about the poor and then criticizing it, while you are telling me what I and my ilk want to do about the poor and then criticizing it. We probably got this way from watching too many political advertisements on TV. I think it would be more productive if I let you tell me what your plan is and you let me tell you what my plan is. We may not be as far apart as we think we are. So what's your plan?

Okay, if you insist, I'll go first: There are lots of programs already in place to help the poor, and you're right, there always has been. Historically, some of these programs have been more effective that others, but there has always been something. Forget about my ilk, I am not in favor of cutting these people off cold turkey. When you have been feeding birds or other wildlife for some time, and you decide you don't want to feed them anymore, it's not cool to suddenly stop feeding them in the dead of winter. You should wait until summer, when their natural food is more available, and then you should gradually wean them away from their dependence on you. So the first thing we need to do is provide some other way for these people to make a living. Then we need to give them the training or whatever they need to become successful in their new occupations.

That's kind of the theory they have been working with in Michigan for some time now. Able bodied people on welfare are required to either work of go to school for at least 20 hours a week. If your job doesn't pay as much as you could be making on welfare without working, they will make up the difference. The problem with that is that most of the available jobs around here will never pay you enough to get totally off of government assistance. Many people who are even working full time are still eligible for food stamps or some other program. It's not that the welfare programs are too generous, it's that the jobs don't pay enough. Raising the minimum wage doesn't help because most of the jobs around here are in retail stores. If the stores have to pay their help more, they won't absorb that cost, they will just pass it on to their customers, which are mostly the same people that are working for them and in other stores.

Maybe what the government should do is start hiring more people themselves. My ilk isn't going to like this, but fuck them. They have had plenty of time to demonstrate the effectiveness of their trickle down theory. Next Tuesday we have to vote on a big tax increase to fix the deteriorating road system in Michigan. I've got a better idea, put the poor people to work fixing the roads. We are already paying them not to work, or to work for substandard wages. If we pay them to fix the roads instead, we will be getting more bang for our bucks. Pay them well enough that they can afford the higher prices in the stores, which will now have to raise their wages to compete with the government for labor. Of course this isn't my original idea, your man F.D.R did something like this back in the 30s. It was controversial to be sure, and people are still arguing about it, but maybe it's an idea whose time has come.

It doesn't matter who you think is an Indian, or who I think is an Indian. The government has already established the criteria for that. If you're an enrolled member of a federally recognized tribe, you're an Indian for legal purposes. If you're not an enrolled member, but you still think you're an Indian, then why in the hell didn't you say so on your census form? (I don't mean "you, Uncle Ken",  I mean "you, a generic person".)

When we went to school, they told us that "White" is not really a race, it is a nickname for the Caucasian Racial Group. "Celtic" is a race, "Slavic" is a race, "Nordic" is a race, but "White" is not a race. I considered putting down my race as "Slavic", but I don't know what they're teaching about that in the schools nowadays. Chances are the census people wouldn't know what I was talking about, and there wasn't room on the form to explain it to them. It was easier to just check "White". At my age, I find myself doing things the easy way more and more. I need to save my time and energy for more important things, like blogging and cutting firewood.