Edward Halas, Grand Forks, column: Listen, and you’ll hear U.S. ‘Coming Apart’
February 16, 2012 at 6:05 pm in Grand Forks Herald
Under the law, we all are born equal but we are not born with the same mental and physical capabilities nor the same social environment. If society cannot find a solution for the Joeys of our country, then the separation into two tribes will become ever greater. The end will not be pretty. Continue Reading
I don’t think this divided rich and poor is the problem. Everyone is born equal yes and everyone has the opportunity to work hard and get ahead. Sometimes working hard does not make you rich but sitting on your butt with your hand out doesn’t either while some think it should.
A national plan to bring rich and poor together. Dumb idea for more government control over freedom.
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Leave it to a retired pointy head collecting a fat pension to advocate government force as a solution to a perceived problem.
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I do not know what Average American and Kevin are talking about. The professor never once endorsed a government program for anything. You need to read closer.
He simply stated what is an undeniable fact: if the gulf between the rich and the poor becomes too extreme (meaning the loss of a functioning middle class), bad things happen. The bad thing he was referring to is revolution. For example: Russia, China, France, and Mexico.
The reason the US has been as successful as it has been is a functioning middle class. A capitalistic society cannot survive without one. It is the buffer between the haves and the have nots.
I am not advocating a handout. Something for nothing is stupid and never works. I cannot believe politicians threaten to shut down the government over how long someone receives welfare benefits instead of restructuring the benefits themselves.
No able bodied person (alcoholism, depression, anxiety, and fibromyalgia are not acceptable reasons to consider yourself disabled) should ever receive benefits of any kind without giving something back. I don’t care if its working on a chain gang next to the cons picking up trash or shelving books in the library. If I give you something: food stamps, health care, welfare payments; you must give me something in return.
Something for nothing saps a person’s self respect. The reason the WPA and CCC were more successful than today’s welfare programs is they required you to work. It was a government makeshift job, but you had to work.
We need to get back to that standard.
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