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But that's also my point: How do you stop crime or, more accurately, how do you break the cycle of crime and poverty unless people are given an equal opportunit

But that's also my point: How do you stop crime or, more accurately, how do you break the cycle of crime and poverty unless people are given an equal opportunity? My last, fake billboard illustrates the problem with your concentrate-them-all-in-one-spot proposal. We fund everything locally. Schools, transportation, parks, the works. People in nice neighborhoods have opportunities that the ghetto literally does not because the folks in those other neighborhoods won't fund them, believing them to be a waste of time. It's easy to say "just get a job and leave the slums." It's much, much more difficult to do that, especially when there is a bifurcated society.

yummyfajitas 12y ago
So to summarize, poor people are incapable of managing their own lives even given sufficient information. They are also incapable of self governing. I guess the solution to this is some sort of paternalistic dictatorship? Is the purpose of spreading the poor around merely to dilute their vote?
- techsupporter 12y ago
  No, and I really think you're either intentionally missing the point or you're just not willing to look at the reality around us. Either way, back to our respective neighborhoods.
- davideads 12y ago
  When I started working at public housing in the early 2000s, I came with this notion that people my age didn't have jobs or didn't work hard enough. What helping friends with their resumes taught me was folks often pursue jobs doggedly -- but because of their race, background, and education, find themselves in dead end work. It seems to me the classic economic arguments you're making need to be turned around: In an environment where the options in the mainstream economy are unstable, low-reward work and you lack the capital to secure credit to get an education or make serious investments, wouldn't you think about joining the drug economy? Also both the gangs and community groups were entirely capable of self-governing.

yummyfajitas 12y ago

So to summarize, poor people are incapable of managing their own lives even given sufficient information. They are also incapable of self governing. I guess the solution to this is some sort of paternalistic dictatorship? Is the purpose of spreading the poor around merely to dilute their vote?

techsupporter 12y ago
No, and I really think you're either intentionally missing the point or you're just not willing to look at the reality around us. Either way, back to our respective neighborhoods.
davideads 12y ago
When I started working at public housing in the early 2000s, I came with this notion that people my age didn't have jobs or didn't work hard enough. What helping friends with their resumes taught me was folks often pursue jobs doggedly -- but because of their race, background, and education, find themselves in dead end work. It seems to me the classic economic arguments you're making need to be turned around: In an environment where the options in the mainstream economy are unstable, low-reward work and you lack the capital to secure credit to get an education or make serious investments, wouldn't you think about joining the drug economy? Also both the gangs and community groups were entirely capable of self-governing.