Let me say a few things to start: 1. This will not be a comprehensive post covering the entire range of thoughts I have on this topic. 2. Barak Obama is a fantastic public speaker, if he looses the election then he has a future as a Pentecostal preacher. 3. I will not say SHUT YOUR STUPID FACE in this post, I put it in my last one as a joke, but evidently (according to my wife that is offensive and not funny)it was not a good joke.
After I listened to the speech a few things stuck out to me, mostly Mr. Obama's propensity to tell us what he was going to do. By and large the tone of the speech was two fold, the Republicans and the rich guys are out to hold you down, and if I'm president everything will be wonderful for everybody (except for Republicans and rich guys) all the time. Every child will go to Harvard and every poor family will suddenly be overwhelmed with all their opportunities, industry will be booming because guys with good ideas can own their own businesses and were all going to be lovey dovey in this world of change. I know what he is going to do, he told me last night, I never heard how he was going to do that. He is going to reduce our dependence on middle eastern oil, and create a 150 billion dollar industry for more efficient vehicles - How? The majority of our oil comes from Canada and Mexico anyway, I don' care much about the 30 % we import from the Middle East what about the other 70%. (see he did not say foreign oil, he said middle eastern oil)yet all this is going to be done without drilling in the shelf, or in the Alaskan tundra, or building new refineries. These are all measures he opposes. The other problem is why would a self respecting car company care about a 150 billion dollar industry to build more fuel efficient cars when they make 3 or 4 times that selling the gas guzzling behemoths they make now. They make them, we buy them, and we pay the gas prices all the while complaining, but as long as the the general public accepts it then it will continue. The problem is a little more complex as throwing 150 billion at it and hoping it goes away.
According to Mr. Obama lower and middle class citizens need tax breaks and none of them can afford college. He is going to fix all that, we are not sure how, but trust him he will. I've been poor before so I can speak from experience, you don't pay taxes if your poor - as a matter of fact I got several thousand extra back every year that went above and beyond what I paid in for the year. Until I recently jumped a tax bracket or two I had never paid a red cent into the federal system that I did not get triple back at the end of the year. As to college my wife is currently enrolled in the nursing program at the local community college, we never pay a dime. I make over 50,000 annually, I won't say how much over but it is more than that and there are enough grants available for her that with out ever taking out a student loan she gets her classes, books, and tuition paid for and some back besides. What more do we need really, someone to come to your house in the morning and get you dressed for class. Maybe the government should provide you with an entire wardrobe so you can wear the most fashionable clothes while you attend class. If you are poor you never pay federal income tax, and you can get paid to go to college the how are you going to cut taxes and make college more realistic for low income families than it already is.
I realize this is long and I am rambling but it is my blog and I am frustrated by the political process. Let me conclude with this point, Republicans primarily believe in a trickle down effect, take care of the higher income individuals ( the ones who own businesses and create jobs) and the Democrats at least preach a foundational doctrine of help these teaming Masses yearning to breath free with as much aid and assistance as possible to build a strong country. Although both ideas have merit in some ways there is one major flaw in the democratic plan. Generally low income families like it just fine where they are. Sure they want more money but there is no motivation there to take one of the many avenues already available to go get it. What makes us believe adding new avenues to better yourself will help. We can all agree that moving up the food chain is hard, it takes work, effort, and drive. We go back to school or work the overtime, we hone our skills in our free time or learn added skills to move up the ladder. Most people are just not willing to do that. I'll close with a little illustration, My partner and I had to go to North Tulsa to pick up a service TV. It was an old style 65 inch JVC bigscreen ( in urban pronunciation that is said behsreen) and it was heavy. An older lady answered the door and showed us in to where the set was, the wheels had been damaged so we were going to have to carry it the whole way. Since it weighed about 400 pounds (not an exaggeration) she tried to get her 20 something year old son and his three cohorts to help. I was the middle of the day they could not help because they were drinking 40's out of brown paper sacks and playing the game ( that is the urban description for Madden). We carried the hulking pile of junk all the way to the truck while those lazy bums sat there drinking and playing video games while their aging mother tried to help. She complained about their lack of desire to get a job or an education. This is not a problem that politics can fix, it will take an entire change of culture that may never come. I realize you say that this is the exception not the rule, but go to an urban area, check out the low income sections, see whats really going on and if the traits to move up the food chain we described above are exhibited in these places and get back with me. We don't need a government that is going to give away more free stuff or give a bunch of money to already rich people so they can pull the poor out of the gutter. We need a culture change back to core values and hard work. Accountability to all, and if you don't work you don't eat, but if you sincerely need help we take care of our own. This will never happen and I feel like those sailors who traveled with Paul when the great storm came upon them "all hope we should be saved was taken away". RLR
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4 comments:
Well, to be fair, you can read plenty of information on his plans to do these things on his website. You can also listen to his other speeches where he discusses the issues. This was a convention speech, not intended to give a detailed description of all his plans. It was meant to inspire and unify.
Of course the poor do not actually pay taxes. The point of Obama's plan, though, is to actually increase the income of the poor, not simply to not have them pay taxes. That's always been the point of giving more money back to the poor than they actually pay in. It's not unique to Obama.
I understand what you're saying about personal responsibility. There will always be people who game the system. This is not a sin unique to the poor, though. The rich do it all the time and make a whole lot more money in the process; it's just more respectable when they do it. And it's easy to dump on the poor by accusing them of laziness. Abusus non tollit usum, doncha know? It does not follow that because a lot of people are going to abuse a system it should be used to help those who genuinely need it.
Expand Access to Jobs
Help Americans Grab a Hold of and Climb the Job Ladder: Obama will invest $1 billion over five years in transitional jobs and career pathway programs that implement proven methods of helping low-income Americans succeed in the workforce.
What in the world does this even mean? What is a transitional job - what methods help low income people succeed in the work force. Wouldn't they be the same methods that help us all succeed in the work force
Create a Green Jobs Corps: Obama will create a program to directly engage disadvantaged youth in energy efficiency opportunities to strengthen their communities, while also providing them with practical skills in this important high-growth career field.
Disadvantaged youth who care about PS3's and college football - in a green job corps, come on you know better than that. This is a nice sounding idea in theory not in practical reality.
Improve Transportation Access to Jobs: As president, Obama will work to ensure that low-income Americans have transportation access to jobs. Obama will double the federal Jobs Access and Reverse Commute program to ensure that additional federal public transportation dollars flow to the highest-need communities and that urban planning initiatives take this aspect of transportation policy into account.
Nice idea - but you and I have to pay for it.
Reduce Crime Recidivism by Providing Ex-Offender Supports: Obama will work to ensure that ex-offenders have access to job training, substance abuse and mental health counseling, and employment opportunities.
All of these programs are currently available, but I guess they could be done better. This is an very small fraction of society to run a campaign on.
There are several other issues on his web site that are equally difficult to understand or envision as being helpful in the long run. Seems every program or idea is to a very small segment of the populace and will cost the majority quite a bit. I say we just become a socialist society and divide all our stuff equally between all citizens.
Transitional jobs are jobs created for people who have difficulty finding other work, e.g., single mothers, people recently released from prison, people with disabilities. These jobs are temporary and allow working to earn a paycheck while acquiring job skills that will help them get permanent, full-time work. This is exactly the sort of program that will move people from welfare to work and promote the idea of personal responsibility you and I are both concerned about.
I don't know what to tell you about your pervasive pessimism about people's unwillingness to work. I mean, I'm a pessimist too, but even I have a hard time believing that all the poor people in the country would rather sit on their butts watching Jerry Springer and eating Cheetos. I don't have a rosy view of human nature so you can't accuse me of that. Nevertheless I do believe that most people have at least some self-respect.
These ideas are a long, long way from socialism in any generally accepted sense of the word. What underlies programs like these is the view that we all have a shared responsibility to care for each other. Of course these programs are targeted at small groups. I would hope that we're not all poverty-stricken, unemployed, disabled, and otherwise downtrodden. Those of us who are not have an obligation to help those who are. You may not agree that such an obligation exists, but you can't called it socialism.
And besides, Obama's tax plan would give a tax cut to 95% of Americans. That doesn't sound like it is targeted to a small group. Folks in our tax bracket and those below us would actually have a bigger tax decrease under Obama.
I agree that the ideas in principle are fine - it's the fact that many are to complex or far fetched to be effective or reasonable. There are jobs to be had in our country and people don't want those. Why would they agree to work at a transitional job when they won't work a job that is currently available? My company as well ,as two others that I am close to the owners, is having trouble finding people to work. Not qualified people, they just want warm bodies they can train, but it's hard work and only pays in the mid teens per hour. You can make that much staying at home and living of government programs.
This all seems like a lot of money spent to create programs that are going to have a very low yield. I feel a grass roots approach at the county and city levels may be more effective than another federal program that is well meaning but muddled in so much red tape that the many are sacrificed for the few.
I'm not saying that the GOP have all the answers, far from it, but my point ,which I have not clearly made because I am a horrible blogger that just types where my mind goes, is that BO is going on and on about change when it all just seems like more of the same. Lots of programs for a section of the population of the country that arguably doesn’t want or wont use the help being offered. I realize I am a pessimist and jaded on human nature, but give me my trash can and point me to Sesame St. Call me Oscar I just don't have faith in anybody anymore. RLR
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