Liberty Pen: Milton Friedman- Free To Choose: Thomas Sowell: Welfare (1980)

Source:Liberty Pen- Professor Thomas Sowell, as part of Professor Milton Friedman's 1980 Free To Choose series, talking about Welfare.

"Thomas Sowell debates the dynamics of welfare with Pennsylvania Secretary of Welfare, Helen O'Banion (1980:Liberty Pen" 

From Liberty Pen

I've been writing a lot about poverty lately and how I feel we can as a society finally win the so-called War on Poverty that we as a country declared in 1965. Long time ago, there were actually Gen Xers born in 1965, so if your getting tired of hearing my thoughts on poverty, I apologize but its been in the news a lot lately and I've seen a lot of things about it. 

Plus, I really care about the subject and this is a so-called war (similar to the War on Drugs) we shouldn't be losing as a country as great as we are. If we are capable of an unemployment rate 4.5% which we had just three years ago before the Great Recession of 2008/2009, we can have a poverty rate of 4.5% as well. Other developed nations have poverty rates of that level and with our wealth we can definitely achieve that as well. But I'll try to be as original as possible with this post as I can but no promises. 

Libertarians and Democratic Socialists who read this post will disagree with it but for different reasons: one side thinking government (especially the Federal Government) has no role in addressing poverty in America. And one side will disagree with me saying that your approach isn't government centered enough especially from the Federal Government. 

Debate is great and since we live in a Liberal Democracy and people can agree and disagree and have a constitutional right to do so. And they can tell me why they think if I'm right or wrong and how or not say a thing their choice. Small preview this post will again be centered around freedom. 

Education reform, temporary financial assistance, and job placement, and not exactly in that order. Again in the 1930s when the Federal Government officially took on poverty in America. It was very government centered especially from the Federal Government. 

The 1930s FDR New Deal vision behind it that these people are poor, can't take care of themselves and don't have the skills to take care of themselves. So society (meaning the Federal Government) has a moral responsibility to literally take care of these people and there were religious feelings behind this. And that you help low-income people by giving them Welfare checks and let them be and this approach if anything was expanded in the 1960s with the Great Society. 

This is the approach that Democratic Socialists prefer, government giving low-income people money so they can support themselves. Well, seventy-five years later, we've seen how this approach has worked. If anything poverty in America is a bigger problem in America today, then it was back then. 

The New Deal and Great Society if anything created a "culture of dependency", making low-income people the working poor and unemployed if anything more dependent on public assistance, because instead of empowering these people to get out of poverty and again if gets back to temporary financial assistance so these people can survive in the short-term. 

Education, empowering these people to go back to school and finish their education and go on and further their education, so they have the skills that they need to get themselves a good job and become self -sufficient. And then finally job placement helping these people find good jobs. 

 Going forward to finally winning the so-called War on Poverty, we need to empower adults to get the skills that they need to get a good job and become self-sufficient, so they can have as much freedom as middle class people or better. 

But then for the future we need to empower their kids that they need to get a good education that they'll need to get good jobs in the future. And I believe thats centered around holding educators and schools accountable for good and bad. As well as paying them well up front so they have enough incentive to go into and stay in the education profession. And then public school choice, so parents will have the ability to send their kids to the best school possible, as well as charter schools. 

We can win the so-called War on Poverty in America, but to do that, we have to empower people who are in poverty so they can finally get out of poverty. Not just giving them Welfare checks.