Re: Social Security Reform - Today's News.........
Are there nations that have done a better job at taking care of their underclass? I think so. Everybody in Sweden seems pretty happy, for example, and I can't believe it's because they have no underclass. Maybe more socialism is the answer. A guaranteed standard of living for everybody in this country. A social contract that promises that you don't have to worry about food, shelter, education, or health care.
Or maybe the libertarians here have a better idea....
Wab, I think we both know that Libertarians are mostly blowing smoke. However, even their crap is probably a better idea than that last one, which I suspect you are way too experienced to really believe in.
As regards Sweden and its underclass, comparisons to the US are definitely a case of apples and oranges. Most of Europe, Sweden included, is just beginning to see what an imported underclass can and can't, will and won't do. So the historical success Sweden has had with socialism says very little about their future. Ditto England, France, Holland and Germany. All these countries are finding out that the poor people that their systems were set up to serve after WW2 acted differently than the new clients from the Caribbean, Africa, North Africa,the former Soviet Bloc. etc.
Furthermore, the working people of the home countries are not as eager to support all of these new groups as a naive planner might hope. Social welfare policies are must more successful in homogeneous, not "Diverse" societies. In fact almost everything is more successful, other than ethnic restaurants, world music, and opportunities to hear lots of languages on the street.
A more realistic comparison would be to other countries that imported slaves from Africa. Cuba, Haiti, Dominica, Martinique, Guadalupe, Jamaica, Grenada, Brazil, Guyana, to some extent Colombia.
Have any of these done a better job than the USA?
I don't think so.
I guarantee that if the USA is here 100 years from now, so will our underclass be here. And not in the purely statistical sense. In the sense of crime, work participation, whatever indices of social pathology you care to use. Not only that, they will be joined by a new underclass that we are busily importing as I write this. Our current demographic state, plus immigration, plus wrong headed policies will guarantee this.
Before long the USA will look like South America. Some rich people in gated communities and high quality high rises. Some middle class law-abiders of all races in suburbs ever farther from the cities. Inner cities will be largely unpoliced, very dangerous for anyone of any race who must live there, and very dangerous for anyone who accidentally blunders in. The process of destruction will follow the middle class suburbs out, as can already be seen in many older suburbs where the cops can't really keep up with the gangs.
No one will ever change anybody's mind on these things, because one can always make objections to any argument. The perfect way to prevent trying anything new is cry racism, and say we haven't done enough yet. The word racist is to our time what the word heretic was to Galileo's.
But as Wabmester pointed out, we have done more than any other society, ever.
Sometime, people will say enough. Then watch the shite hit the fan!
Mikey