[Vision2020] Fw: FW: Back on Uncle Sam's plantation.....

[Saundra Lund]

Roger, I don't disagree with all of your points, but I'd like to you to expand on exactly how it is you think the current welfare system encourages more welfare?

Certainly the clients I worked with didn't like living in poverty with their children and would have loved a way out.  However, even before this economic crash, A LACK OF JOBS ACTUALLY PAYING A LIVING WAGE was the main reason the able-bodied people I knew really were trapped on welfare, coupled with a lack of bridge programs like the ability to retain health coverage (MediCaid) until getting a job with benefits, extended child care subsidies since jobs that don't pay a living wage don't pay enough for parents who want to work to pay for child care, etc.

I'm all for helping people move off welfare towards real self-sufficiency, but I don't think setting time limits absent adequate bridge programs is appropriate, helpful, or humane.


Saundra Lund
Moscow, ID

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.
~ Edmund Burke

***** Original material contained herein is Copyright 2009 through life plus 70 years, Saundra Lund.  Do not copy, forward, excerpt, or reproduce outside the Vision 2020 forum without the express written permission of the author.*****


-----Original Message-----
From: lfalen [mailto:lfalen at turbonet.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 10:48 AM
To: Saundra Lund; vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: RE: [Vision2020] Fw: FW: Back on Uncle Sam's plantation.....

Saundra
There is no doubt that more regulation is some areas may help. Market speculators such and Madoff are a problem. Some of these people are just parasites feeding off the system. Some regulation here may help. entrepreneurs such as Bill Gates are what make this country great. There are some that are corrupt and this needs to be addressed, but most are not. With out these people we would not have the affluence that we enjoy as a county. The way to help people in the inter cities would be to encourage the devotement of small businesses, such as lawn mowing, sewing shops, rasing rabbits(there are a lot of empty buildings), house cleaning, etc.  Larger companies should be encouraged to have in house day care so working mothers can being their kids to work. The current welfare system encourages more welfare. This cycle needs to be broken. Anyone can be unemployed for a short time. They are entitled to help, but a time limit should be placed on welfare for the able bodied.
Roger
-----Original message-----
From: "Saundra Lund" v2020 at ssl.fastmail.fm
Date: Mon, 10 Aug 2009 10:22:34 -0700
To: "'lfalen'" lfalen at turbonet.com, vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: RE: [Vision2020] Fw: FW: Back on Uncle Sam's plantation.....

> <snort>
> 
> And a whole lot of true believers in "America on capitalism" are now living in "a poor America" and needing to depend on a hand up from government precisely because of American capitalism run amok and government failing to regulate.  All those greedy wealthy capitalists thought their own personal financial gains were more important than the economic health of our nation as a whole, and they got away with robbing us blind because of the preferential treatment their wealth and power bought from the government.
> 
> 
> 
> Saundra Lund
> Moscow, ID
> 
> The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.
> ~ Edmund Burke
> 
> ***** Original material contained herein is Copyright 2009 through life plus 70 years, Saundra Lund.  Do not copy, forward, excerpt, or reproduce outside the Vision 2020 forum without the express written permission of the author.*****
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com] On Behalf Of lfalen
> Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 10:12 AM
> To: vision2020 at moscow.com
> Subject: [Vision2020] Fw: FW: Back on Uncle Sam's plantation.....
> 
> 
> -----Original message-----
> 
> From: rowan33 at suddenlink.net
> Date: Sun, 09 Aug 2009 17:25:48 -0700
> To: rowan33 at suddenlink.net
> Subject: FW: Back on Uncle Sam's plantation.....
> 
>  
>  
> Back  on Uncle Sam's plantation - Star  Parker - Syndicated Columnist
>   Six  years ago I wrote a book called Uncle Sam's  Plantation. I wrote the book to tell my own story of what I saw living inside the welfare state and  my own transformation out of it.
> 
> I said in that  book that indeed there are two Americas -- a poor America on socialism  and a wealthy America on capitalism. I talked about  government programs like Temporary Assistance for  Needy Families (TANF), Job Opportunities and Basic  Skills Training (JOBS), Emergency Assistance to Needy Families  with Children (EANF), Section 8 Housing, and Food Stamps.
> 
> A vast sea of perhaps well-intentioned government programs, all initially set  into motion in the 1960s, that were going to lift the nation's poor out of poverty.  A benevolent Uncle Sam welcomed mostly poor black Americans  onto the government plantation. Those who accepted the invitation  switched mindsets from "How do I take care of myself?"
> to "What do  I have to do to stay on the plantation?"
> 
> Instead  of solving economic problems, government welfare socialism created monstrous  moral and spiritual problems -- the kind of problems that  are inevitable when individuals turn responsibility for  their lives over to others.  The legacy of American socialism is our  blighted inner cities,  dysfunctional inner city schools, and broken black families.
> 
> Through  God's grace, I found my way out. It was then that I understood what freedom  meant and how great this country is.  I had the  privilege of working on welfare reform in 1996, passed by a Republican Congress and signed 50 percent.  I thought we were on the road to  moving socialism out of our poor black communities and replacing it with wealth-producing American  capitalism.  But, incredibly, we are going in the opposite direction.
> 
> Instead of poor America on socialism becoming more like rich American on capitalism, rich America on capitalism is becoming like  poor America on socialism.  Uncle Sam has welcomed our banks onto the plantation and they  have said, "Thank you, Suh."  Now, instead of thinking about what creative things need to be done to serve customers, they are thinking about what they have to tell  Massah in order to get their cash.  There is some kind of irony that  this is all happening under our first black president on the 200th anniversary of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln.
> Worse, socialism seems to be the element of our new  young president.
> And  maybe even more troubling, our corporate executives seem happy to move onto the plantation.
> 
> In an op-ed on the opinion page of the Washington Post, Mr. Obama is clear  that the goal of his trillion dollar spending plan is more than short term economic stimulus.  "This plan  is more than a prescription for short-term spending -- it's a strategy  for America 's long-term growth and  opportunity in areas such as renewable energy, healthcare, and  education."
> 
> Perhaps more incredibly, Obama seems to think that government taking over an  economy is a new idea. Or that massive growth in government can take place "with unprecedented transparency  and accountability."
> Yes, sir, we heard it from Jimmy Carter when he  created the Department of Energy, the Synfuels Corporation, and the Department of  Education.
> 
> Or how about the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 --  The War on Poverty
> -- which President Johnson said "....does not merely expand old programs or improve what is already being done. It charts a new  course.
> It strikes at the causes, not just the  consequences of poverty.."
> Trillions of dollars later, black  poverty is the same. But black families are not, with  triple the incidence of single-parent homes and out-of-wedlock births.
> 
> It's not complicated. Americans can accept  Barack Obama's invitation to move onto the  plantation. Or they can choose personal responsibility and freedom.  Does anyone really need to think about what the choice
> should be?   Trouble with socialism is that you eventually run out of
> other people's  money.
> 
> 
>