You are in charge of US Domestic Policy - what is your solution to urban poverty?

[Eurodriver]

The St Louis thread kind of got off track, so I moved it to its own thread.

How would the US get places like Vine City in Atlanta, or South Dallas, or South Chicago, or Little Haiti/Hialeah near Miami back on track?

[THCDDM4]

First a complete overhaul of our public education system from the ground up. It is rediculously outdated Prussian style nonsense. We are not pumping out factory workers anymore, yet that's the system of education we cling to. We need critical thinkers.

Next is deregulating just about every industry to the point they can make money and prosper here again. I'm not talking chaos, I'm talking minimum regulatory and licensing requirements and tax incentives for start ups. We need fresh blood in every sector and we need to revitalize lost industry's.

Next get rid of war on drugs. This is a huge factor in the perpetuation of poverty. Put some of that WOD money into rehabilitation programs and back to work programs. When in the hood you can make good dough slanging drugs and all it does is perpetuate violence, addiction and the cycle of poverty.

Next would be to have much stricter guidelines on assistance programs. They all need to be program based to get people back into the work force and earning for themselves again.

Next would be to attack the gang culture. Music, Hollywood, tv etc- all glorify it. That culture will never cease to exist, but we need to battle it more successfully.

Stop funding the rest of the worlds bullshit and focus our attention here at home. We have real problems in our own backyard that have been all but ignored for decades.

We need to stop enabling these folks to perpetuate the cycle. Whomever genuinely wants out and shows that with actions- give them what they need. Whomever doesn't- cut them off quickly and let them rot from within.

There needs to be a culture shift, that's the hardest part because it has to happen from within these communities by their own hands. Time and time again we've seen that assistance means nothing if these communities aren't willing to change for themselves. We need to be honest about this and realize there are going to be those that don't want to, cannot and will not change. Leave them to their own destruction and put energy into those that want to change.

There is no simple solution but the above would be a great way to start in my opinion.

[scottryan]

Cut down on the welfare. Its work or starve.

Militia on the border. Remove illegals by force. Their jobs can go to Americans on welfare.

Its that simple.

[VIP3R 237]

Cut down on the welfare. Its work or starve.

Militia on the border. Remove illegals by force. Their jobs can go to Americans on welfare.

Its that simple.

And by doing that we can free up the $150 Billion a year that the US spends supporting illegals and roll it into education or whatever.

[ABNAK]

Scale back the WOD and mandatory sentencing (sometimes you just can't save people from themselves), at least for non-dealers. Set strict guidelines for assistance, even tapering it off as you make more $$$ instead of an arbitrary "Bam, you're done" once income hits a certain level. There are jobs out there, no one wants to work them though.

As previously mentioned, the bulk of the effort would have to come from within those communities themselves. That will be the fly in the ointment of any "answer" to the question posed.

[NYH1]

There needs to be a culture shift, that's the hardest part because it has to happen from within these communities by their own hands. Time and time again we've seen that assistance means nothing if these communities aren't willing to change for themselves. We need to be honest about this and realize there are going to be those that don't want to, cannot and will not change. Leave them to their own destruction and put energy into those that want to change.

Truer words have never been spoken!

Most of the problem is MOST of these people are content letting other people take care of them and complaining about how unfair they're treated and how bad they have it. They don't want to do anything about it. They want to be the victim. It's generation after generation after generation.

They can kill each other every day as well as other people who they truly victimize and they're fine with that....just don't do anything to their sweet little angels with violent criminal records thicker then phone books....then they riot. They had their man in Obama for 8 years and they just got worst. Good luck fixing it!

I grew up in a city. I was part of the "White Flight Movement" out of the city....glad I'm gone. We left and they DETROYED pretty good neighborhoods we left them. Notice I'm a little numb to their $h!t.

NYH1.

[chuckman]

I grew up in a city. I was part of the "White Flight Movement" out of the city....glad I'm gone. We left and they DETROYED pretty good neighborhoods we left them.

White flight is being replaced with gentrification. When the exodus occurred in every major city, value and prices plummeted, and the whole inner city went to shit. Now it's chic and hip to buy those places and turn them into lofts and coffee houses and studios and galleries. All of that is good and all except that is raises the values and thus taxes for everyone. While I enjoy going to the former 'hood to swill expensive microbrews as much as the next guy, I don't know what the answer is.

[NYH1]

White flight is being replaced with gentrification. When the exodus occurred in every major city, value and prices plummeted, and the whole inner city went to shit. Now it's chic and hip to buy those places and turn them into lofts and coffee houses and studios and galleries. All of that is good and all except that is raises the values and thus taxes for everyone. While I enjoy going to the former 'hood to swill expensive microbrews as much as the next guy, I don't know what the answer is.

I guess I should have said I can only speak for my area. These neighborhoods aren't being turned into lofts and coffee houses and studios and galleries. They're being turned into gang infested, dangerous drive-by, walk-by, walk-up to shooting, stabbing, drug dealing and houses being torn down, not fixed when in disrepair. Won't even mow the lawn. Sit on the porch all day long with a Caddy in the driveway, buffed out to every jagged line of rust with 22's on it....won't mow the lawn.

The worst part about my old neighborhood was during the school day when they bused in the kids that didn't live there. Once they went home, most things went back to normal. Now it's armed robbery after armed robbery after shooting after shooting after....well you get the point. Sure there was trouble every once in a while from within, that always happens. Nothing like now.

My parents still live there. Complain about it all the time. House has been paid off since the mid 90's, property values go down every year, taxes go up. They own another house, nice ranch type on a pretty big lot out in the burbs that they rent out. I tell them all the time they're crazy. They like their tenants, they're good people. I'm sure they are. My families and my own well being is more important then good tenants. My dad has a nice garage and all the toys in it. He could build 100 garages....CRAZY!

NYH1.

[26 Inf]

First a complete overhaul of our public education system from the ground up. It is rediculously outdated Prussian style nonsense. We are not pumping out factory workers anymore, yet that's the system of education we cling to. We need critical thinkers.

Next is deregulating just about every industry to the point they can make money and prosper here again. I'm not talking chaos, I'm talking minimum regulatory and licensing requirements and tax incentives for start ups. We need fresh blood in every sector and we need to revitalize lost industry's.

I thought your post was well thought out, and I agree whole-heartedly with most everything you wrote, except the above.

I think we actually need to revert back to shop classes, home economics and phys ed. Why? Because we have an infrastructure that needs rebuilding, and we desperately need to return premium manufacturing jobs to our shores. America can not prosper as a service economy.

For the most part, industry didn't leave America because they weren't viable here, they left because cheaper labor markets overseas made them more money.

I agree we should incentivize manufacturing startup's, but we should de-incentivize American-based companies who are manufacturing overseas, make them bring those jobs back home.

[THCDDM4]

I thought your post was well thought out, and I agree whole-heartedly with most everything you wrote, except the above.

I think we actually need to revert back to shop classes, home economics and phys ed. Why? Because we have an infrastructure that needs rebuilding, and we desperately need to return premium manufacturing jobs to our shores. America can not prosper as a service economy.

For the most part, industry didn't leave America because they weren't viable here, they left because cheaper labor markets overseas made them more money.

I agree we should incentivize manufacturing startup's, but we should de-incentivize American-based companies who are manufacturing overseas, make them bring those jobs back home.

Perhaps I misconveyed my point.

We have TONS of folks who are easily molded into factory workers. We need critical thinkers far more.

Shop classes, technical vocations, etc are all good things and we should absolutely have them. But the Prussian style of sit here, bell rings- go over there, bell rings- eat your lunch, bell rings- pull this lever, bell rings- go outside, bell rings- go back to sitting, bell rings...

Fit into a box, do not question authority and don't really learn anything just be complacent and learn to memorize basic shit.

It's got to stop. Children need to really have a larger degree of freedom in their educational experience. We need to allow them to want to learn, learn how to teach themselves with minimal guidance and take on challenges rather than herd them into least common denominator environments.

We need more critical thinkers, period. Public education is a nightmare, I'm ashamed and angry at the state of the educational system in our country. It's pathetic.

We need manufacturing facilities and jobs to come home, absolutely. But we need a revolution in the public education system. Developing the minds of the future generations to be free thinkers, use fact based and testable logic and utilize critical thinking skills is of the utmost importance to the future of our nation.

What we are doing now is a joke and one of the majors contributors to the decay of the very fabric of our culture and our Constitutional Republic.

The public school system gets ahold of people when they are young, maliable and turns the majority of them into mindless complacent drones that can be manipulated incredibly easily and taught just enough to function in society, but not enough to be awake or aware.

Truly, we are in need of a massive rehaul.