The battleship of poverty

 

 

"It has been said that fixing entrenched poverty is like turning a battleship in a bathtub. Me? I think fixing poverty might be harder..."

It has taken a long, long time to get here. And will take a long, long time to get out of here. What happened this week in Baltimore is systematic of the problem. The problem of poverty. The problem AND the trap of generational poverty. And it is getting worse.

Poor people did not come into existence under George Bush. Not under Barack Obama. Not under FDR. Not even under George Washington. Poor people have been around since the beginning of time. Jesus said in the Bible the "poor would be with us always." These words ring true. Even though we were warned the poor would always be with us, it does not mean we have to accept it.

However, many of our major cities in these United States are becoming "hollowed out" due to generational poverty. Some parts of our cities are almost unlivable. Yet people are forced to live there, generation after generation. And this is a fertile ground for crime, drugs and despair.

I am not going to go into the genesis of poverty. People much smarter than I have filled libraries with books on that subject. However, I will give my opinion on why it has become so much worse in the past 50 or so years. And what it took to break the system will also be needed to fix the system. Hint: It is not more money nor more government programs.

Education - Before some hang up the phone right now, please hear me out. All men might be created equal, but all schools are not. Some are nothing more than failure traps. Graduation rates of 50% or less. And those who graduate don't know much. The standards have been dumbed down so far, many of these graduates cannot go any further without remediation.

Between the Federal, state and local governments, this country spends an extraordinary amount on education. And the return on investment is spotty, very spotty. Our education system (which once was very good) now reminds me of a car with 300,000 miles and a bad engine. Rather than face reality by getting a new car or at least a new engine, we continue to pour copious amounts of money into this wreck just to keep it running. And every year the repairs get more expensive and the car runs worse and worse.

The BEST ticket out of poverty and to break the mold of generational poverty is a QUALITY education. An education where kids truly LEARN. Not just how to express their feelings, but how to critically THINK. Think and know stuff worth knowing. Until we address our education issue, everything else we will do is just whistling in the wind.

Home life - This is a tough one for sure. The quickest way to get on the poverty express (besides dropping out of school) is to have a kid out of wedlock. Sorry - it is a fact. Been proven over and over again. I have no clue on how to fix this one. I do know this. Almost 50 years ago when I graduated from high school, it was NORMAL to graduate as a virgin. Very few girls had to leave high school to have a child out of wedlock. Those who did, either got married to the boy responsible or the child was given up for adoption. Now we were not perfect back then - far from it. But we were smart enough to not only stay in school, but also to realize an unplanned pregnancy was a life changer.

Until we elect leaders who are true thinkers, who are not status quo robots, our poverty index will be stuck in the downward position. We will accept the fact we have developed a permanent underclass in this country. It is almost like a caste system. We will continue to have areas of large cities which will be considered toxic, and "enter at your own risk" zones. If that is the kind of America we want, we are well on the way.

We need to address this issue with all guns blazing. Everyone needs to be involved. Because until we change our thinking, fixing poverty in America will be harder than turning a battleship in a bathtub. Much, much harder.