Professor Sowell connects the dots between the damage of the welfare state and the incentives of liberal political leaders. http://www.LibertyPen.com
(6 votes)
Legacy of the Welfare State
Professor Sowell connects the dots between the damage of the welfare state and the incentives of liberal political leaders. http://www.LibertyPen.com
Comments
(Long Spike)
5/5 Sowell is so right. He's lived it and watched it all right before his eyes. It was key that he mentioned the change in the percentage of black two-parent homes over the course of just 30 years. The change has been society-changing.
(Old Spike)
It's a really difficult problem to solve. The only strategy I've come up with is to pump more resources into early education, including nutrition. A strategic shift away from rewarding single parents and more towards lifting barriers that the children face so that the next generation is more intelligent & economically successful than the current one, without discriminating against other people eg. marking everyone's university entrance based solely on merit.
We have the same issue in NZ that's led to a culture of teens planning to have kids just for the $$. In some cases they don't even plan to raise the kid, they have a relative who raises them while they slut around looking to have another for more $$. It's a pretty fucked culture. You can't blame the teens, they have choices that they make based on what's available.
(Old Spike)
yeah they've screwed that up in australia too, it's lead to impoverished kids because it's given as a lump sum, which parents are supposed to use to buy essentials like baby capsules and other needs that's are pretty expensive, but instead they're buying (not all ofc but far too many) new tvs or other expensive stuff, or worse a new car that they later can't afford insurance on. baby bonuses shouldn't be cash.
(Long Spike)
HMMM, that lump sum system sounds great. That would work wonderfully here in the U.S. There wouldn't be any cheating the system, child neglect and abandonment, or any problems whatsoever.
(Old Spike)
blame is misplaced. this doesn't mean that welfare isn' good, it means that the way it's currently being done isn't good. there's a name for this particular logical fallacy though i can't remember what it is.
it seems that welfare is too close to minimum wage. why bother working 40 hours a week when you can get almost the same amount for nothing? there's 4 different solutions currently in use around the world. one is reducing welfare payments, but that's had detrimental effects as it's brought it below subsistence level and caused crime. the next is raising the minimum wage to 1.5-2x the welfare level making employment much more rewarding, which also has the benefit of a double positive effect on the economy as although payroll costs increase, sales increase accordingly as customers have more money to spend, and with a reduced welfare budget and more people paying tax, taxes can be reduced. third is making welfare contingent on doing something like working for the city or state on projects similar to community service - complete 10 hours a week for level B welfare payment, 20+ for level A or whatever. last is making welfare time-limited, a common period is 6 months, enough time for the welfare to serve its purpose of supporting people from when they lose their job while they look for another one.
(Old Spike)
Yea, we've heard the same shit before.
Cuba doesn't mean that socialism is bad, it means that the way they did wasn't good.
China doesn't mean that communism is bad, it means that the way they did wasn't good.
Russia doesn't mean that Marxism is bad, it means that the way they did wasn't good.
Venezuela didn't fail because of socialism, because what Venezuela did wasn't REAL socialism.
(Site Moderator)
Finland here. By US standards (or yours) a very socialist country. Can you tell me why we suck too?
(Short Spike)
cuz you aint a gun clutchin' conservative capitalist boiii. Buncha leftist cucks ova derrr.
Canada here and you would be an absolute buffoon to not appreciate the system. Far from perfect but also far from oppressive.
(Old Spike)
I think I can speak for myself, thank you.
And i'm sure you do appreciate the system so long as you're comfortable having a jackboot on your neck.
(Short Spike)
I'm breathing easy.
My neck is healthy and untouched. Not the red you're used to thank you very much.
(Old Spike)
Finland here. By US standards (or yours) a very socialist country. Can you tell me why we suck too?
Let me first start by refuting your assertion of "US standards" and pretending to know my standards.
Quite simply put, Finland isn't "socialist" according to Marxist theory.
Your question confuses "social welfare" with "socialist".
How is Finland socialist?
Do the workers run the factories or own the means of production? No.
Does the state own the banks? No.
Is socialism written into the constitution? No.
Are other than socialist parties forbidden? No.
Is private enterprise forbidden? No.
Do they have a welfare state? Yes. So does the USA and here it has keep millions in poverty for generations and been used a wedge by Democrats to buy votes and keep power.
(Old Spike)
A lefty professor/scientist dude I worked with once told me that in Canada we've designed a welfare state that essentially pays poor, uneducated and unintelligent people to stay out of prison, and that the US has a welfare state that pays prisons to keep poor, uneducated and unintelligent people out of circulation.
(Short Spike)
He sounds smart.
Sociology professor of psychology?
(Old Spike)
Whatever a person who develops complex mathematical algorithms based on gaussian distributions to determine the location of an infrared light source to within microns for brain surgery and manufacturing is called. I think he was a physicist of some kind - interestingly, brain surgery only requires millimeter-level accuracy, but when you're building cars it has to be within microns. He was probably the highest paid person at the company who wasn't an executive - he was a pot-smoker who was heavily involved in the hippy movement in the 60s, approved of psychedelics, and was shunned by most of the company due to his eccentricities. He also often wore the same pants to work for a week straight, and as a result there was a mild hygiene issue there.
(Site Moderator)
"Do they have a welfare state? Yes. So does the USA and here it has keep millions in poverty for generations and been used a wedge by Democrats to buy votes and keep power."
Both are welfare states but somehow the effects are different in the US. Wouldn't that suggest there something else going on? Sure we have our share of welfare bums, but generally, people value real work over here.
(Long Spike)
Finland is basically a homogeneous society. Try a slew of our minorities on for size and see how you make out. The number of people in Finland who "Value real work" would decrease and the population of "Welfare bums" in your country would skyrocket.
(Site Moderator)
Well thats where I'm getting at. It's not liberal politics / welfare state that's causing it.
(Long Spike)
To Eh;
Of the immigrant and refugee populations that Finland has about 95% are employed or studying or otherwise productively occupied. They are also responsible for less crime than the locals. Only some of the refugees from certain countries(Somalia) fit the 'lazy welfare refugee' category. Mostly because of mistakes made in the 90' in Finlands refugee policies which have been rectified since.
Finland also has a long history as being a dual-culture society. We're one of the few nations in the world that recognizes a minority language as an official language(Sweden).
Just saying that we might seem homogenous but that's only because we're a relatively huge country for only about five million.
(Long Spike)
Great! Finland has a massive immigrant population of 140,000 people. The U.S. immigrant population is 47 MILLION, by far the highest in the world. The system in Finland that limits the entry of mainly productive refugees might make the percentage of productive refugees somewhat higher than the U.S.
Finland is a dual culture society? Oh, Finnish and Swedish. Like Canada is dual culture with English and French as a recognized language. WOW, that's a groundbreaking policy accepting the culture of a neighboring country of the same race. Comparing immigration in Finland and the U.S. is ridiculous.
(Long Spike)
You sure seem angry about this issue. Sure the numbers are different. But you(the US) don't have the Shengen system now do you? So even with your heavy border guards and whatnot you still have a larger influx if migrants (not refugees) than Europe which has 'open borders' and relatively cheaper living conditions for students etc.
See, you have migrants because the US hasn't done anything towards building 'stopping countries' for the refugees unlike the EU has done with Turkey and previously Libya amongst others. Refugees are something the EU doesn't have a handle on as such. The numbers aren't similar to the US mostly because you can't walk over a sea from the south and the middle-east is mostly a war zone and east is Russia. Which is to say we're lucky geographically and neighbour-wise.
(Long Spike)
To FullAuto;
Finland is absolutely a socialist contitutional republic. We fought a civil war between actual marxist socialists and land owners that resulted in the beginnings of one of the best countries in the world. Where the elite understood that the people need more than just crumbs and more or less embraced the notions of socialism while making sure that the democracy of the public doesn't ruin the country by instituting a republic through a constitution. They seriously thought about a monarchy as well but realised that wouldn't work for us.
Do workers own the means of production? Not directly no. They hold partial ownership through retirement funds which hold large posessions in the companies and industries functioning in Finland. And they own them through the government investment branches which also own large parts of the same. Plus we have robust nearly mandatory workers unions and rights and representation in all work places.
The state owns A bank. Some banks are co-ops. Some are purely private. That's the beauty in our socialist republic that it tries its best to let all flowers grow.
Socialism is written into the constitution. Large parts of the human rights, worker rights, healthcare parts, etc are either near direct quotes from socialist textbooks or strongly inspired by them. Our constitution doesn't quote Marx because that's just retarded.
Socialist, communist and other parties were forbidden until relatively recently. Technically a purely nazi party isn't legal in Finland. But otherwise it's the same as the bank part. Let all flowers grow type of stuff. Stupid ideas get weeded out or modified enough to work well enough.
Private enterprise isn't forbidden in any socialist country. That's communism. Fun fact, despite being the most socialist country in many ways in Europe we're still the top country for enterpreneurship. We have the largest number of small businesses and such in relation to the population when compared to any other EU nation. Socialism and good business practices work well hand in hand.
Oh yeah, we also had a 'communistic dictator' for a while. Kekkonen.