BEST OF JIM COOK

May 10, 2006

ABBREVIATED SOCIAL COMMENTARY

With silver so much on our minds these days we have limited space for our usual social missives. However, a few items have been in the news lately that merit comment. The New York Times reported recently on the sorry state of black employment. The unemployment rate for men has risen to 50% or more. Liberal editorialists bemoan this sad state but none can see any connection with the massive social programs that give the underclass money. Six million black males get by without working and liberals can’t figure out why. When you include the millions of whites, Hispanics and Asians who either live off the dole, their girlfriends ADC money, or illegal activity, you have the biggest social disaster on earth. We wouldn’t need 12 million illegal aliens to work here if we weren’t subsidizing an equivalent number of slackards.

The left believes that giving people money improves their economic condition. In reality, it dramatically worsens their condition. Big government programs fail at every turn. Have quotas improved employment results? Has more money for education improved educational results? (Almost 1/3 of our children now fail to graduate from high school.) Does ADC and other poverty giveaways improve crime rates? We can’t seem to build enough prisons and violent crime is on the rise again. Forty percent of inner city males are hung up in the criminal justice system. Any threat to public safety brings on left wing demands for more money and more programs. Giving people free money, free opportunity or a free ride is responsible for most of what’s haywire in our country. The time is long overdue for the left to wise up.