Facebook exchange prompted by this essay about the staggering number of black men in American prisons.
Bill Unfortunately, the black community has a terrible issue of single mothers raising kids. Where are the fathers? If more fathers would take their responsibility of raising their kids seriously, you'd see a huge shift in those numbers. I can almost guarantee it!Excelsior!
Ronald On single parent families.
Bill, the reality is that, in an urban environment where there are very few or no jobs, having a husband in the house is nothing but a drain on scarce economic resources. Consequently, single parent families make perfect sense under these circumstances. Further, as the malevolent toll of capitalism triumphant becomes more manifest, we're seeing this trend on the rise among other ethnicities, including whites. It's simply that blacks were among the first hit by f-you economic policies back in the 70s, so that's the first place we saw the rise of the single mother family. Now f-you economic policy is more inclusive in terms of race, so it's happening everywhere.
That is, you can wag your shaming finger all you want about the "missing fathers." But until there are jobs paying good wages for all these men, it's STUPID for them to be involved with these families because they're effectively just one more mouth to feed.
In short, right wing economic policies created this problem, literally destroying the American nuclear family. And right wingers, as always, blame the poor for their poverty.
Bill Your argument is absolutely idiotic, Ron. The freak male shouldn't have impregnated the woman in the first place. If, and I mean if the male actually took his responsibilities seriously, he would care for his woman, spouse, girlfriend, and eventually child. That would mean getting a job, regardless of what type of job it is, to put food on the table. Ron, I love you, but your constant rant of hatred towards capitalism gets very, very old. Most of the problems that many people in this world face come from poor choices. Granted, there are some that live in terrible circumstances and they in many cases have no way out. But there are entirely too many success stories on this planet that show otherwise. Good night!
Ronald Capitalism, and consequently, our nation, are deathly ill at the moment, and people who push the old propaganda stories, the Horatio Alger myths that are true enough for a few, but an impossible joke to the millions, need to hear, again and again, how their fantasies do nothing but push people deeper into poverty and misery. Not to mention the fact that as the rich get richer, their wealth replaces our precious democratic rule.
That is, America is in a state of dire emergency, and people of conscience whose eyes are not covered by the foolish tales and false narratives pushed by the wealthy and powerful have a patriotic obligation to shout the truth from the highest mountain tops. So, I'm sorry if it disturbs you, but it is a matter of deep, deep conscience for me. To shut up about these very important matters is an act of immorality. I cannot stop telling the truth.
Beyond that:
1. Minimum wage jobs cannot support a family. Minimum wage jobs are all that is available for millions and millions of Americans.
2. Telling people not to have sex will not stop them from having sex. That's a genie that can never be put back into the bottle. Shaming such people, while seemingly well intended, not only doesn't solve the problem, it also confuses discussion about it, making actual solutions all the more difficult to find.
3. We have allowed capitalism to warp and twist society such that bad choices are often the ONLY choices. We cannot continue allowing commerce to be the sole concern of civilization. This is self-destructive.
4. At this point, there are only enough success stories to bolster these false Horatio Alger narratives with anecdotal evidence only. Statistical evidence, actual data, shows the reality: most of the poor will remain poor throughout their lives, and members of the working and middle classes are increasingly joining the them in poverty.
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