At 11:40 AM 4/15/02, you wrote: >I wrote: >>>The root cause of both is poverty, and we as a planet need to do much more >>>to fight the problem of poverty than we do right now. >Ronn replied: >>LBJ's "war on poverty" didn't seem to do much more to fix that problem than >>the current "war on drugs" has done to get people to stop using drugs. Any >>suggestions? > >That's a really tough one. I've started this email about 20 times now, >and haven't been able to come up with a plan that I couldn't immediately >shoot full of holes. There are no quick and easy answers for this one, >but right now there's not even much debate about it. > >Reggie
Yeah, I've been thinking about it too. One analogy that I came up with is that finding a "cure" (or even an effective treatment) for poverty is like finding a cure for cancer: it is not a single disease, and everybody's individual case is different. Just as what helps one patient may be useless or even harmful to another patient, what one poor person needs may be the exact opposite of what another needs. Frex, some people are facing poverty or have been forced into it by a sudden catastrophic illness or accident, and what they need more than anything is money to pay their medical bills and tide them over until they can work again, while others will take every dollar they can beg, borrow, or steal and immediately purchase drugs with it. Clearly the same program will not help both of those. Creating custom programs based on individual needs, though, is more expensive than a "one-size-fits-all" approach. In particular, it would likely require hiring many more case workers in order that each case worker can give the necessary attention to each individual case, although current caseworkers are overworked with trying to deal with the current system. Other thoughts, anyone? -- Ronn! :) God bless America, Land that I love! Stand beside her, and guide her Thru the night with a light from above. From the mountains, to the prairies, To the oceans, white with foam� God bless America! My home, sweet home. -- Irving Berlin (1888-1989)
