Hi-
yesterday I said what I feel to be underlying issues in societal dysfunction. Today I want to say something about solutions. I will say in advance what I am going to write will sound hard, or cold, or perhaps judgmental. It is not meant that way; I simply see no other path to fixing our social problems.
I have always been uncomfortable with proscriptive laws. Outlawing alcohol was a notorious failure, and it is the same with drugs and other personal indulgences. Legislating morality is impossible. We have speed limits posted everywhere, with tickets if you drive over the limit. Does this stop anyone from speeding? No. We simply accept the fines as part of the cost of driving. Germany, on the other hand, has some areas with a 100 kph (about 60 mph) speed limit, and many others with no limit at all. Go to Youtube and watch the videos of a Bugatti Veyron at 240 mph in traffic.
No one is telling those drivers they can not drive a certain speed. If they get in an accident, however, there are fierce fines, jail sentences and loss of license. And on the first accident, not after three or four like our drunk driving laws. So, I don't like telling people what to do- not my business. Rather, I think it best to punish not the behavior but the negative social consequences of irresponsibility. At 240 mph, only you are responsible for what happens. There is no pleading of a driver who cut in front of the vehicle. It makes no difference. If you are going to drive those speeds, you only are responsible for consequences.
I feel the same way about other societal choices and behavior. I am deeply sympathetic to those who suffer from problems beyond their control, whether disease, or injury. I am not so sympathetic to those who suffer from their own behavior, and I don't believe society should be responsible for them. We are in a cultural paradigm of blaming others for bad outcomes, so that poverty is the responsibility of society, out of wedlock unintended births are the responsibility of society, dropping out of school is the fault of the school system, taking drugs is a neighborhood problem.
These problems are personal choices, and should be the responsibility of the actors, not society. So, while being perfectly comfortable with the legalization of drugs, alcohol, pornography and prostitution, I feel the consequences of indulgence are the users, not society's. If people are not making good individual choices, how can society guide them to better ones without proscription?
My preference has two parts- a change in legal structure and paradigm, and a change in government.
We currently allow on welfare anyone who can not find work and is below the poverty line, single mothers with children, drug and alcohol users. We allow loitering on the streets because to prevent it is an infringement of right of free assembly. At the same time we have totally inadequate mental health facilities for those with mental illness (a substantial proportion of the homeless).
I would not allow welfare for anyone who dropped out of school. I would not pay for any child born out of wedlock. I would garnish the wages of an DNA identified father who does not marry the mother of his child or provide support. I would do drug and alcohol testing (this can be done with high accuracy on the spot, with results in a minute or two), and if positive I would not allow such a person to receive welfare or social security benefits. I would create the mental health outpatient centers that were to be created 45 years ago when the locked mental hospitals were closed as a violation of patients' rights.
There's a terrific story from an African medical missionary. The clinic where he worked had an ability to see perhaps 100 patients per day, but as many as 500 per day showed up, sometimes walking miles to be seen. They would line the halls of the clinic, sitting on the floor. The nurse would come out as the doctor arrived, and ask all the patients to stand up for the doctor. The only people seen that day were those too sick to stand.
The same applies for those out of work on welfare. Those who can work and say they can not find a job should be put to work for the government, if nothing else cleaning up the sides of the road. Those who can not work, who have injuries and physical disabilities (not mental- there's quite a business in fraud there), deserve the compassion and support of society, but not those who can work. I would rather pay for useful labor than for those who do nothing because welfare pays better than some jobs.
At the same time, government and other authority systems need to regain the trust of the US. That will require a change in the way of doing business. No hushing up of scandal or failure. Stories like the pederastic priests should be dealt with immediately by firing, not re-assignment and counseling. Churches will need to traffic in something besides intolerance to gain respect. In particular, like the Christians of old, they will need to show their values in service to others, so that the church becomes known for the good it does rather than the evil it conceals.
Those in government should have term limits for all. No one should be a professional politician- we have a civil service for the running of government. Elections should be financed by the federal government completely. No candidate can use anything except federal money. People and corporations can speak, publish, take out ads, but not give money to candidates, and neither can political parties. Giving money is not a form of speech- it is a form of bribery, and money from political parties enforces party, rather than constituent, loyalty. The cost to the government will be small compared with our current budget obligations, but will remove the tilt toward wealthy individual candidates and those beholden to lobbyists and corporations.
I believe these legal modifications would lead politicians to greater service and honesty. It would make individuals think very hard before becoming pregnant, fathering a pregnancy, using drugs or dropping out of school.
Hard stuff, I know. It sounds cruel, but to subsidize fools only guarantees a profusion of foolish behavior. What people howl at in banks- federal subsidization of failed bank policy- they blithely accept on an individual basis. We need to help the truly helpless, and have a framework in place to guide people away from self destructive choices.
Thoughts?
Ted
yesterday I said what I feel to be underlying issues in societal dysfunction. Today I want to say something about solutions. I will say in advance what I am going to write will sound hard, or cold, or perhaps judgmental. It is not meant that way; I simply see no other path to fixing our social problems.
I have always been uncomfortable with proscriptive laws. Outlawing alcohol was a notorious failure, and it is the same with drugs and other personal indulgences. Legislating morality is impossible. We have speed limits posted everywhere, with tickets if you drive over the limit. Does this stop anyone from speeding? No. We simply accept the fines as part of the cost of driving. Germany, on the other hand, has some areas with a 100 kph (about 60 mph) speed limit, and many others with no limit at all. Go to Youtube and watch the videos of a Bugatti Veyron at 240 mph in traffic.
No one is telling those drivers they can not drive a certain speed. If they get in an accident, however, there are fierce fines, jail sentences and loss of license. And on the first accident, not after three or four like our drunk driving laws. So, I don't like telling people what to do- not my business. Rather, I think it best to punish not the behavior but the negative social consequences of irresponsibility. At 240 mph, only you are responsible for what happens. There is no pleading of a driver who cut in front of the vehicle. It makes no difference. If you are going to drive those speeds, you only are responsible for consequences.
I feel the same way about other societal choices and behavior. I am deeply sympathetic to those who suffer from problems beyond their control, whether disease, or injury. I am not so sympathetic to those who suffer from their own behavior, and I don't believe society should be responsible for them. We are in a cultural paradigm of blaming others for bad outcomes, so that poverty is the responsibility of society, out of wedlock unintended births are the responsibility of society, dropping out of school is the fault of the school system, taking drugs is a neighborhood problem.
These problems are personal choices, and should be the responsibility of the actors, not society. So, while being perfectly comfortable with the legalization of drugs, alcohol, pornography and prostitution, I feel the consequences of indulgence are the users, not society's. If people are not making good individual choices, how can society guide them to better ones without proscription?
My preference has two parts- a change in legal structure and paradigm, and a change in government.
We currently allow on welfare anyone who can not find work and is below the poverty line, single mothers with children, drug and alcohol users. We allow loitering on the streets because to prevent it is an infringement of right of free assembly. At the same time we have totally inadequate mental health facilities for those with mental illness (a substantial proportion of the homeless).
I would not allow welfare for anyone who dropped out of school. I would not pay for any child born out of wedlock. I would garnish the wages of an DNA identified father who does not marry the mother of his child or provide support. I would do drug and alcohol testing (this can be done with high accuracy on the spot, with results in a minute or two), and if positive I would not allow such a person to receive welfare or social security benefits. I would create the mental health outpatient centers that were to be created 45 years ago when the locked mental hospitals were closed as a violation of patients' rights.
There's a terrific story from an African medical missionary. The clinic where he worked had an ability to see perhaps 100 patients per day, but as many as 500 per day showed up, sometimes walking miles to be seen. They would line the halls of the clinic, sitting on the floor. The nurse would come out as the doctor arrived, and ask all the patients to stand up for the doctor. The only people seen that day were those too sick to stand.
The same applies for those out of work on welfare. Those who can work and say they can not find a job should be put to work for the government, if nothing else cleaning up the sides of the road. Those who can not work, who have injuries and physical disabilities (not mental- there's quite a business in fraud there), deserve the compassion and support of society, but not those who can work. I would rather pay for useful labor than for those who do nothing because welfare pays better than some jobs.
At the same time, government and other authority systems need to regain the trust of the US. That will require a change in the way of doing business. No hushing up of scandal or failure. Stories like the pederastic priests should be dealt with immediately by firing, not re-assignment and counseling. Churches will need to traffic in something besides intolerance to gain respect. In particular, like the Christians of old, they will need to show their values in service to others, so that the church becomes known for the good it does rather than the evil it conceals.
Those in government should have term limits for all. No one should be a professional politician- we have a civil service for the running of government. Elections should be financed by the federal government completely. No candidate can use anything except federal money. People and corporations can speak, publish, take out ads, but not give money to candidates, and neither can political parties. Giving money is not a form of speech- it is a form of bribery, and money from political parties enforces party, rather than constituent, loyalty. The cost to the government will be small compared with our current budget obligations, but will remove the tilt toward wealthy individual candidates and those beholden to lobbyists and corporations.
I believe these legal modifications would lead politicians to greater service and honesty. It would make individuals think very hard before becoming pregnant, fathering a pregnancy, using drugs or dropping out of school.
Hard stuff, I know. It sounds cruel, but to subsidize fools only guarantees a profusion of foolish behavior. What people howl at in banks- federal subsidization of failed bank policy- they blithely accept on an individual basis. We need to help the truly helpless, and have a framework in place to guide people away from self destructive choices.
Thoughts?
Ted
Amen. Not a cold post at all. I have been a strong supporter of drug and alcohol testing for welfare and government aid. If enabling were taken away, better choices would have to be made. I have seen too many times, the people really in need of aid are often denied, while those who have figured out how to work the system often live better than many lower middle class people.
ReplyDeleteI second that Amen! My daughter works for D.H.S as a social worker for child protective services and she has witnessed first hand the abuse of the system. She has to deal with children of drug addicted parents who have to be removed from their home. Some,actually most, of these parents lose custody of the children who without them they cannot reap the benefits of welfare. One mother who had her child taken away told my daughter "Oh well I'll just have another one"!!!!! Unbelieveable right? Something does have to be done but what without the poor children of these drug addicted mothers suffering. Strict birth control? Wouldn't work. If you can't stand hearing about these case try working with them. There are days my daughter thinks she'll lose her mind but then she thinks of the kids she works with and hopes that maybe,just maybe, she can help them and make a difference in their lives.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Aside from the importance of holding people accountable and how that would benefit society, as a taxpayer I have a right, even an obligation, to insist that my hard-earned dollars are used wisely. We work hard for what we have and are happy to help those in need, but would, and do, resent our tax dollars being squandered on those who think it's our job to clean up their messes.
ReplyDelete