The Unites States has historically done a pretty bad job of taking care of its poor. And the record, in the last few decades, has only gotten worse.
Before Obama entered office we spoke to Stephen Pimpare, the author of A People’s History of Poverty in America. He had high hopes for Obama at the time. What would he say after the first few months?
I’m totally perplexed as to why people continue to believe that each person is not responsible for his own actions. Why is it assumed that all who have complications in their lives are unlucky and need government assistance, and all who can handle their own problems are lucky?
I’m now close to 62 years of age, having been an adult during much of the US’s efforts to create government programs for “deprived” people. And every single one of those programs didn’t work in the long run. When does such overwhelming data result in the conclusion that governments can’t get people to become responsible and take care of themselves, instead of the repeated conclusions that the program was great idea, just carried out in an ineffective manner?
By WarrenMetzler on March 27th, 2009 at 5:14 pm