Government Against Blacks

Townhall.com ^ | June 1, 2011 | John Stossel

[Kaslin]

The other day, I went to Times Square to ask people what government should do to help poor people. Most everyone agreed on the answer: "more social programs and a higher minimum wage."

It's intuitive to think that way. I used to think that, too. When President Johnson declared a "war on poverty," he said "compassionate government" was the road to prosperity for poor people. That made sense to me. At Princeton, I was taught that government's central planners had the solution to poverty.

But then I watched them work. Government spent trillions of dollars on poverty programs, and the poverty level stayed stuck at about 12 percent of the population. It's stayed there for about 40 years.

Now I understand that that government poverty programs encourage people to stay dependent. There's money in it. They policymakers would have known this 25 years ago had they read "The State Against Blacks." The author, an economist, said poverty programs destroy the natural mechanisms that have always enabled poor people to lift themselves out of poverty.

That author is Walter Williams of George Mason University. Williams, who is black, says "there's a huge segment of the black population for whom upward mobility is elusive, and it's because of the welfare state -- because of government."

Williams elaborates in a new book, "Race and Economics." A chief culprit, he insists, is the minimum wage.

"Let's not look at the intentions behind minimum wage," he said. "We have to ask, what are the effects? Put yourself in the place of an employer who must pay $7.25 no matter whom you hire. Will that employer hire a person who can only add $3 or $4 of value per hour?"

He will not. And so fewer young people get hired and "get their feet on the bottom rung of the economic ladder." This hurts all young people, but black teens most, he says, because "many of them get a fraudulent education in the public school system. So a law that discriminates against low-skill people has a doubly negative effect on black teenagers. The unemployment rate among black teens today is unprecedented in U.S. history. In the '40s, black teenage unemployment was less than white teenage unemployment."

And yet a Pew survey says 83 percent of Americans support raising the minimum wage.

"People have the misguided notion that the minimum wage is an antipoverty tool."

Economists understand the truth. A survey of the American Economic Association found that 90 percent of economists say the minimum wage increases unemployment.

Williams says the minimum wage law has also been a tool of racism. In his book "South Africa's War Against Capitalism," he studied that country's labor markets during apartheid:

"White racist unions in South Africa that would never have a black as a member were the major supporters of minimum wage laws. Their stated purpose was to protect white workers from having to compete with low-skill, low-wage black workers. In the United States we found some of the same reasoning for support of a super minimum-wage law," the Davis-Bacon Act, which forces taxpayers to pay union-like wages for government-funded construction projects.

Williams says other programs designed to help the poor -- like welfare payments -- have wrecked the lives of millions of black people. He likens the welfare state to a "drug pusher" that keeps people dependent and in poverty.

"The welfare state has done to black Americans what slavery (and Jim Crow and racism) could not have done ... break up the black family. Today, just slightly over 30 percent of black kids live in two-parent families. Historically, from the 1870s on ... 75-90 percent of black kids lived in two-parent families."

Why does the welfare state create illegitimacy?

"(Without welfare,) people would decide, 'I'm going to go out and get a job, I'm going to live more responsibly.'" And that would include getting married before having children, something the welfare system discourages.

I believe the creators of the welfare state had good intentions, but good intentions aren't good enough. Even if deficit spending were not bankrupting America -- which it is -- America should end these programs.

[DH]

Bums and leeches on society are.....well....bums and leeches on society! Always have been...always will be.

[Gen.Blather]

Democratic politicians make such a huge deal about the minimum wage not because of the poor or trying to help somebody. Minimum wage clauses are built (probably) in every union contract. When the minimum wage goes up, the union wage scale goes up too. Haven’t you noticed that every time there’s a minimum wage boost that there’s also a jump in real inflation? Wages go up, more money is chasing the same amount of goods, and goods become relatively scarcer; the price goes up.

[Pecos]

The Law of Supply and Demand is a natural law, like gravity. Every time someone thinks they can violate it, or pass a restraining order against it, reality kicks in at some point. The usual case is exemplified by Nixon's freezing of gas prices, which only served to aggravate the shortage of gasoline throughout the country. Suppliers simply refused to sell the product at a loss. Just like farmers poured milk out on the ground (1950’s? 1960’s?) rather than accept artificially low prices. I remember the TV film footage, but not the year. Freezing health costs would have the same effect, unless health care providers are forced to work overtime - in which case there would be job slow down actions. Unofficial, of course, but effective nevertheless.

The real purpose for increasing the minimum wage is to allow union negotiators more leverage by pointing out that their members are far more qualified than mere minimum wage people.

[sniper63]

"The real purpose for increasing the minimum wage is to allow union negotiators more leverage by pointing out that their members are far more qualified than mere minimum wage people."

Having been on both sides of the table I see your point, but being on the company's side of the table when that "more qualified" quote comes up, I simply state that I can hire three people for the price of one union member and have them just as qualified within 6 months, and then it is at my discretion to increase the wages or not. But I run a plant in a right to work state which is a little easier to deal with.

[SoothingDave]

Milton Friedman called the minimum wage a “monument to the power of superficial thinking.”

[MrB]

In other words, minimum wage increases are just a way of increasing the output of the

DEMOCRAT PARTY’S MONEY LAUNDERING SYSTEM.

[IMR 4350]

“I believe the creators of the welfare state had good intentions”

No they didn’t.

Congressman Jack Brooks let my old man in on the little secret, LBJ’s Great Society was never intended to get anyone out of poverty.

Southern blacks were moving off their small farms and moving to the cities, mainly in the north.

This movement left a shortage of farm labor for the larger farms.

They thought it was a way to keep cheap farm labor. They could collect a govt check and work for farmers off the books.

[MrB]

There is a VERY powerful reason that leftists and sheeperals PREFER to think superficially.

They stop examining an issue at the very point where the REAL goal is fulfilled. That real goal is to justify the lie that “I’m a good person” and to assuage the visceral knowledge that they are NOT “a good person” when measured against The Standard (none of us are).

Therefore, when they think about any issue, once their sense of self-assurance is fulfilled, there is no need, or DESIRE to think any further. In fact, pointing out the downsides of their position on an issue makes them uncomfortable and angry, because you’re “attacking” their sense of self-worth.

[MrB]

The _supporters_ of the welfare system _wanted to believe_ they had good intentions.

[politicianslie]

When President Johnson declared a "war on poverty," he said "compassionate government" was the road to prosperity for poor people

That was after VP Johnson led the coup that killed President Kennedy. Johnson got religion after Kennedy was brutally murdered. The end apparently justified the means.

[leaning conservative]

When I first came on there was a post about John Stossel and I was pretty negative about him. Another Freeper told me to listen to him & give him a chance.

I did & I was amazed at how I never liked him. I agree w/ everything I have heard him say! He also has a great sense of humor! Where I teach I see the single women having children and not marrying because they would lose all their gov’t goodies. It’s such common sense to cut off the gravy train and I bet births would go down; it just seems logical.
Next year one of my special needs kids will be a girl whose mother has 10!!!!!!!!!!! other children. She does not show up to meetings for her daughter & I can only assume that the others are probably very deprived......................only in America.............
Anyway, I think John Stossel rocks and I love that he’s not afraid to say what he thinks. I’m a big fan now.

[Pecos]

My comment about the “real purpose” has as much to do with filling congressional coffers as it has to do with union negotiators.

[MrB]

It’s such common sense to cut off the gravy train and I bet births would go down; it just seems logical.

Indeed it does, but the sheeperals only see it from the angle of "you're going to cut off those who already need it".
They also don't believe that such incentives or disincentives have any effect on behavior. They believe that young girls will continue to have sex and babies regardless of the availability of social programs.

[Fido969]

And yet a Pew survey says 83 percent of Americans support raising the minimum wage.

And then they buy stuff at Wal-Mart, which purchases from countries that use slave labor.

83 percent of Americans want OTHER PEOPLE to pay.

[oh8eleven]

LBJ’s Great Society was never intended to get anyone out of poverty.
Stop and think of the damage LBJ did to America:

• Great Society
• Civil Rights Act
• Medicare
• Medicaid
• Vietnam War

Fifty years later we're STILL paying for all this - and will continue to do so for at least another 50 years.

[Kaslin]

First of all, you can find stuff at Wal-Mart that is made here in the US. Second Wal-Mart is not the only store that sells stuff from countries that use slave labor

[IMR 4350]

There is an even bigger lie that people want to believe.

People want to believe they are transferring the wealth from the rich to the poor, when in fact the “WEALTH” is being transferred from the poor to the rich.

Trickle up economics.

Giving people free goods and services isn't transferring wealth to the people on bottom receiving the goods and services, the wealth is transversed to the people on top that are providing the goods and services.

Give somebody a free ice cream cone they can't do squat with it, it's not wealth.

The guy that sold the ice cream cone is the one that got the wealth.

[hershey]

As Judge Judy said, “Dumb is forever.”

[Gothmog]

To me it seems very similar to Obama’s record:

Healthcare law
Auto bailout
Stimulus
Trying (failing) to close Gitmo

Hopefully that means Obama will suffer a similar fate