(09-06-2019 10:23 AM)Rice93 Wrote: (09-06-2019 10:11 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote: And tell us if you think the USA is an oppressive country.
Again... busy so will respond more later but of course the USA has a long history of injustice when it comes to black people. Does injustice = oppression?
Tell me if you think black people are treated equally in the US in 2019.
Substantially so, yes.
Is it possible in a nation of over 300 million people of diverse races and nationalities to treat everybody exactly equally? No, of course not. So there are case at the margin going both ways--black (and brown) people getting treated worse than others in some respects, better than others in other respects.
Do I think that things can be done to make things better for all? Absolutely. But I believe the kinds of hyperbolic allegations being made by Kaepernick and his ilk do more harm than good.
Again, as I've said about other issues, my biggest complaint is that the conservatives/republicans haven't spoken up with ideas to address the problems. We have a huge problem with poor of all races--the welfare system is set up so that if they take steps to improve their lot, they are penalized so heavily as to discourage them from making the effort. Our current welfare system is designed along the lines of, "Keep 'em dumb, keep 'em poor, keep 'em dependent on handouts, and you'll keep 'em voting democrat." Paul Ryan's staff did a very exhaustive study that confirmed this, including the 100% "effective tax rate" from a combined taxes plus lost benefits that confronts anyone trying to move from about $15,000 a year (minimum wage) to about $55,000 a year (middle class). I have cited it in a couple of peer-reviewed articles. But did they take the next step and propose ways to fix it? No.
Jack Kemp is about the only republican who ever took this on in a major way, and he was not exactly welcomed by the leadership of the party for going there. GHWB apparently hated him, which was very unfortunate because a ticket of GHWB (president focused on foreign policy) and Kemp (VP focused on domestic policy) would have been far more effective than Bush and the lightweight Dan Quayle.
Until republicans come forward with solutions to some very real problems, they are gong to remain vulnerable to hyperbolic (and unsubstantiated) allegations by democrats. What would I do to make things better for black people (and poor people)?
- Universal health care using the Bismarck universal private care/insurance model, which works far better than either single-payer or single-provider, based upon empirical evidence.
- Replace the current welfare hodge-podge with a universal basic income, following either Milton Friedman's negative income tax or the Boortz-Linder prebate/prefund, that allows nobody to fall through the cracks and removes the "welfare trap" or "poverty trap" exposed by Ryan's study.
- Get rid of our marijuana laws, which imprison black people, and young black males in particular, very disproportionately. Pardon everyone convicted of simple possession, expunge their records, and give them extensive counseling and training to enable them to return to society as productive citizens.
- Dramatically reform education. Go to a tracking system, upgrade vocational education by light years, and allow at least some limited form of school choice (the tracking thing could actually be a vehicle to accomplish that, like in Germany).
The first party to take pragmatic steps to address these and other real problems will get my vote. Until one or the other does, however, to me it will simply be stupid party versus evil party.