Big Lies

[David Horn]

(02-18-2017, 02:30 AM)Classic-Xer Wrote: As they say, money makes the world go round. That's American talk.  A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into the establishment of a long standing American business. A lot of blood and sweat went into establishing a life long career with higher wages that paid off school loans and a couple thousand in grants with the tax dollars that were contributed over the following years. I helped out others (family members and close friends) over the years who were in dire straits and really needed some help. I've helped past employees through tough times. I have donated a fair amount of money to various groups like the veterans, 9/11 fund, hurricane Katrina, the disabled and so forth. I've done volunteer work for non profit organizations and I've held board positions with no expectations of being compensated. I'm not a fan of dependency. I don't like being used or being taken advantage of by people. So, I don't go over board with the notion of helping people. I limit the amount of my commitment both financially and time wise.

This is all good, but you still have a blind spot about who or what deserves your support.  A society that consists of a high percentage of failures, for whatever reason, is one that is not worth inhabitting.  Appalachia is already heading down that step road to nowhere, and most of the cause is the business decisioins of many entities to stop using coal.  There is no fault there!  Coal is dead, but the mining communities need it to thrive.  It can't happen. 

So other alternatives are needed, and self-sufficiency isn't even a remote possiblity.  Retraining is a good idea, though how and who pays may make it imposible.  Nonetheless, retraining for what?  Someone in their 40s with no schooling beyond highschool can't easily stop, go to school for a year or two, then get a job when no jobs exist.  That's the missing piece in your world view.  It's also futile to blame the people for making bad decision in the past for two reasons.  Those decision were not stupid at the time, and the past is past.  Going back is not an option.

So leaving things to rot only let's the rot spread, but doing something requires lots of money -- and the money must come from the public sector.  Private sector investment mandates ROI, and saving entire communities (or neighborhoods) is not a profit making venture.  All options availble have negatives, but doing nothing has no positives either.