tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426800777521979578.post8399840907996638835..comments2024-02-20T19:58:27.733-06:00Comments on Jake's Wisconsin Funhouse: Dom Noth rightly calls Dale Koo-Koo on K-12Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3426800777521979578.post-19776359761213781872016-08-07T11:21:04.378-05:002016-08-07T11:21:04.378-05:00I agree with your major statement: the ineffective...I agree with your major statement: the ineffective schools are a symptom of a much greater problem.<br /><br />We have a population which, mostly due to poverty and a near complete lack of faith in American opportunity, is not participating in the economy in any meaningful way.<br /><br />This is not a racial issue though it looks that way in Milwaukee. Look at the vast rural areas of the state, and you'll see the same issue: people without hope making whatever lives they can most conveniently make for themselves.<br /><br />Many times, they are sponging off older relatives on SS and disability - sometimes they're selling drugs to the people who are employed (or on SS or disability) - sometimes they're boosting prescription drugs from relatives or scamming doctors into writing huge scripts and selling most of them. Any idea what the value 100 oxy tablets might be?<br /><br />It's about two weeks wages for yours truly, and I make a damn good buck.<br /><br />We have to get people working. Unemployment is the worst social ill there is - it exacerbates everything else. Substance abuse, domestic abuse, entrenched health problems, mental health issues, community decay and criminality in general are all made worse by unemployment.<br /><br />Most of the unemployment that remains in the US is entrenched in poor areas of both urban and rural backgrounds.<br /><br />When we get those people working, there's at least a chance of them finding a little pride, hope and faith in opportunity - a belief in the notion that their choices and actions matter.<br /><br />We're going the wrong was on drugs. It's tragically comic to watch Republicans argue both sides of the prohibition debate when it comes to guns and drugs.<br /><br />Kill the illegal market by making drugs legal and cheap; then put your money into jobs, health care, mental health care and addiction treatment. It won't be pretty to start with, but it's gotta be better than locking them up, letting them die on the streets and shoving billions of dollars into the hands of violent criminals.<br /><br />Maybe then people will have the chance to start rebuilding their own families, neighborhoods and communities (including their schools).<br /><br />From there, there's at least a chance of some local (legal) entrepreneurship starting.<br /><br />To help keep local money local, I think we need to shift the economic power levers from huge operators like Wal-Mart back towards smaller, privately owned businesses. But I admit I have no idea how to do that or if it's even possible. Budding business people might just have to find cracks in the existing system.<br /><br />I've heard talk from time to time of creating a state bank to help cut some of the international money industry out of the local economies, but I think smaller credit unions could do the same sort of thing.<br /><br />I'm in the process of switching as much of my debt load to a local credit union and away from outfits like Wells Fargo and Citibank. It feels better, but I don't know for a fact that it's accomplishing what I hope it is.<br /><br />Happy Sunday to you. Go Pack!<br /><br />/rantJeffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02427829158996224733noreply@blogger.com