Posted on 08/18/2018 9:25:19 AM PDT by yesthatjallen
To solve a problem, one must first diagnose its cause. This rings true in all walks of life. Yet this fundamental principle seems to be ignored when the problems of inner-city crime and poverty are considered.
For decades, urban areas have been rife with pain and suffering due to violence. Chicago, Illinois is a prime example of this modern American tragedy. The city’s murder rate is among the highest in the nation. Shootings, drug-dealing, car-jacking, gang activity, and other categories of crime are at epidemic levels.
Almost the entire conversation about criminal activity and violence in the city, as well as across the United States, ignores the real causes for these deeply entrenched problems. Far too often, urban leaders and social justice warriors jump to the conclusion that increasing the power of government will reduce crime and poverty. They routinely call for government action, such as gun control, “affordable” housing mandates, and raising the minimum wage. What these well-intentioned but misguided do-gooders repeatedly fail to explain, however, is why the scourge of violence and poverty exists in these areas in the first place. Could it be that their calls for additional government programs have actually helped to contribute to these problems?
Consider this: In the early 1960s, President Lyndon Johnson declared a “war on poverty” and launched his Great Society initiatives, a massive government effort to provide housing, medical care, and other benefits to poverty-ridden areas, especially in urban centers. Trillions of dollars later, has poverty decreased since the Great Society reforms were passed? No.
Shortly after Johnson tried and failed to eradicate poverty, President Richard Nixon announced a “war on drugs,” and so began the government’s attempt to rein in the thriving urban illicit drug industry. Has drug use decreased since this proclaimed war on drugs? No.
In the early 1990s, President Bill Clinton declared a “war on gun violence” and then signed the Brady Bill and the Federal Assault Weapons Ban, which made firearms less accessible to millions of law-abiding citizens. Although the Federal Assault Weapons Ban is no longer in place, several states, including Illinois, have since passed strict gun control legislation in line with these policies’ goals. Has gun violence in urban areas such as Chicago decreased? Again, no.
Politicians from both parties have for decades been promising to improve inner-cities, but in numerous urban areas across the country, inner-city neighborhoods haven’t only failed to improve, they are worse off as a result of the unintended consequences associated with these and other gargantuan government programs. Welfare rolls have increased dramatically, inner-city schools are atrocious, drug use has skyrocketed, and shootings remain an everyday occurrence.
On Chicago’s South Side — ground zero for U.S. urban violence and poverty — left-wing community leaders are calling for mass protests to bring attention to the city’s problems. In July, Catholic priest and advocate of greater government power Michael Pfleger led thousands of protesters in shutting down the Dan Ryan Expressway. The shut-down was part of his crusade against crime, joblessness, and poverty. “We came out here to do one thing: to shut it down,” Pfleger said. “We came here to get their attention.”
Okay, you have everyone’s attention, now what?
A similar march recently place on Chicago’s North Side, where liberal protesters shut down Lake Shore Drive and marched to Wrigley Field. Rev. Gregory Livingston said his intention is to “redistribute the pain in Chicago.”
Instead of spending precious time and resources on disrupting thoroughfares and inconveniencing Chicago Cubs fans, these so-called community leaders (and many others) ought to focus more on introspectively thinking about the root causes of poverty and violence, including the breakdown of the family in many of these communities. Before pointing fingers at their usual targets — policemen, “lack of public funding,” systemic racism, etc. — it is about time these leftist leaders and residents consider that decades of failed big-government policies might be making the problems in their neighborhoods even worse.
The presence of far-reaching government programs has created a cascade of problems: dependency, victimhood, entitlement, etc. Big-government programs destroy and replace the urban family unit as well as individual responsibility and self-reliance, and it replaces these pillars of well-functioning communities with an army of disinterested government bureaucrats.
According to the Heritage Foundation’s Index of Dependence on Government, there was a rapid increase in Americans on government programs since their major inception in the early 1960s leading up to 2009. “Americans’ dependence on the government was 14 times greater in 2009 than it was in 1962,” the index states.
The authors of the index state, “When the federal government provides aid, that aid also binds the dependent person to the aid giver. This aid, however, is anything but mutual. No one expects the dependent person one day to give similar aid to the federal government. And government aid certainly does not strengthen communities and families: If Americans have learned anything about the federal welfare system, it is how effectively it undermines family structure and hollows out communities.”
Furthermore, “voters tend to support politicians and political parties that give them higher incomes or subsidies for the essentials of life; but no matter how well-meaning policymakers might have been when they created government aid programs like Medicare, unemployment insurance, and subsidized housing, these same programs quickly grow beyond their mission and turn into a mechanism that creates and sustains a never-ending cycle of dependence — and entitlement thinking.” As the data shows, more government programs means more dependence — and isn’t it time we ended that cycle?
The solution to the awful situation in inner-cities across the United States becomes quite clear when the cause is properly diagnosed. Remove the big government umbilical cord that absolves personal responsibility and breeds dependence. By doing so, individuals and local groups will be forced to finally confront the pressing issues that face their neighborhoods, instead of hoping the government does it for them.
Chris Talgo is an editor at The Heartland Institute, a nonprofit group aimed at promoting limited government and headquartered in Illinois.
Since I work in manufacturing I’ve learned about finding root causes and the “5 Why’s”. So if leftists start asking why the violence, and keep asking why ...
It takes them places they don’t want to go ... throwing money at the problem only treats the symptom, a quick fix.
The root cause is something leftists can’t accept ... that broken families and ruined communities are at the bottom of it.
I think it will take a move of God to open eyes and change hearts.
Other than being surprised The Hill published this, the reality is - we understand this, and we understand that the message has been ignored for decades.
You can’t walk up to your average inner city “youth” and explain this to them. They have been taught, and believe wholeheartedly, all the things we know to be false.
Attempting to take away their free ride, or expose them to the truth that their worldview was polluted, would be the equivalent of telling one of us that our understanding of the world and certain truths was all wrong. We’re not going to believe it, no matter how much evidence is presented.
The liberal mantra has been extremely successful in creating a permanent underclass that cannot be helped, and will burn the city down if you force them into a world they do not accept nor understand.
You might as well try to modernize a society that’s been alone in the jungle for centuries. It just doesn’t work.
“Well, fix education.” - Good luck with that.
“Turn off the spigot.” - Better hire more firefighters.
You would need a dictatorship and/or full-blown McCarthyism to even begin to solve this problem, IMO.
It's a lot more difficult to address the root causes of urban decay, because it starts with 1) an admission that the liberal policies of the past have failed -- dismally; and 2) that the lies we've been told about cultural equivalence are just that -- lies.
We all know who's to blame for urban violence. But no one dares speak the word.
Once all the wetbacks have been deported, the inner city parasites can replace them, getting some fresh air, and doing honest day’s work for their “free” everything. (or they can get a real job)
The murdering domestic terrorists should be executed, and their buddies, the violent anti-American thugs, should be shipped to the $h!+hole country of their choosing.
Any “refugee” that breaks any law....buh-bye.
If you read the comments at the (S)hill, you can get an idea of the quality of the people God would have to reach.
It’s the culture, not the skin tone or economics or inanimate objects or lack of government money... but since they have been programmed to defend the culture above all else, don’t look for improvements anytime soon.
Want to take on the ‘Real Issue’? Start paying intelligent Blacks to have Children, and less intelligent Blacks to not have Children.
I think as much of it is due to the K-12+ drumbeat of how evil our country is and how we are all exploiting minorities to this day.
Pound that into impressionable minds year and after year and what should you expect?
We could have a similar program for well-educated urban elites and those uncultured deplorables clinging to their guns and religion.
Well put, well said.
In America's inner cities, "a revolution that topples the established order" would involve learning to read and write, and acting like civilized humans.
I love African wildlife.I've traveled there...and I watch every Nat Geo documentary on Africa that I can find.Some years ago park rangers in one of South Africa's big game parks noticed that young "teenage" male elephants were behaving very abnormally...causing all sorts of trouble,including killing other animals for no good reason.It was decided that the lack of adult males in the area (thanks to poaching) resulted in the "teenagers" having no one to look up to or to be disciplined by.
They arranged for adult males from other regions to be brought in and almost overnight the "teenagers" began to behave normally.
But NOT the responsible 'daddy'... but a daddy who said, "do what you want to my daughter, abuse her, use her and I'll pay"... and it deteriorates from there...
The solution is NOT to dump millions of dependent people on the streets... it's to use the government to switch incentives BACK to the ones that existed for thousands of years...the ones supporting healthy strong families. We got into this mess with bad incentives, we can get out of it with good incentives...
I to was shocked that this was on “The Hill.” Put the welfare back to the counties and towns like it was initially and you will see the roles shrink rapidly .....the moving of welfare to D.C. created an industry in itself while sacrificing the family unit to stay together in order to live and strive to have a comfortable life . That and their churches fail them also .
The biggest contributor of this violence is not even mentioned - the explosion of out of wedlock birth rates. From similar rates with Whites in the 30s the Black rate is 80%.
This is a disaster from every perspective.
See “Chaos and Mayhem.”
I have to say this is the kind if idiocy that dug the hole out of which Trump is attempting to dig the conservative movement. Fortunately for us, Trump is 1000 times smarter than this.
Yeah, just “pull the plug” and all of the sudden inner city residents will just up and transform themselves into hard-working, family-oriented, God-fearing citizens. Right. No.
Yes, there’s a kernel of truth at the center of it — the problems of the inner-city have their root cause in the breakdown of the family — but you’re not going to solve that by just taking away government programs.
Trump is smart enough to understand that you solve it by creating opportunities, pathways towards a different life. The starting point is a booming economy (check), eliminating illegal immigration in order to establish a floor in the job market (check), supporting law enforcement so that communities can become safe and crime does not pay (check). Ben Carson is also on the right track with the “Vision Centers”, places where residents can go to acquire the skills and find opportunities (check). Mnuchin is also on the right track with the repatriation of foreign assets law, which will result in up to $6 trillion being invested in economically depressed areas, both urban and rural by the way (check).
Yes, we need to get people off the dole. Three million already have left food stamps since Trump came into office. But it has to be done in an environment where you’re giving people better choices.
Poverty is highly concentrated in Unmarried women (also the Demons top supporters).
The surest path to poverty is to have a child out of wedlock.
There is a gigantic problem which cannot be solved- the fact that Black IQs are a Standard Deviation from the mean. IQs are about 15 pts below the mean.
And before any marshmallows start screeching “racism.” It isn’t whites that have the highest IQs but the East Asians.
Jews have the highest. There are many unpleasant truths the world has to confront. This is one which has emerged and verified by hundreds of studies (most of which were by Leftists who hated this conclusion.
Eliminate two demographic groups and over 90% of the violent crimes and murders go away.
And if some other dempgraphic groups tries to cause trouble, you deal with them just the same.
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