Monday, October 4, 2010

Eliminating Poverty

Why does our country declare war on poverty? Why has our country not fought this war with right tools to winning this war? Why has our politicians created a war on poverty expressly for their own political gain?

The simple answer is that they believe it is what a vast majority of the American people wanted to hear. With that in mind they proceed in the typical government way of trying to eliminate poverty through regulation, new governmental programs, and simply throwing money at the problem. This is the only way that the people in Washington know how to try to solve problems and this solution has been tried many times an yet it still fails to this day. Our education system is in disarray but they continue to throw money at it in the hope they can spend their way out of the problem. It is time to stop with the insanity and try to solve the problem in a different direction.

I propose that the way to solve the poverty problem is actually quite simple but very painful in the short term. If we want to mostly solve the poverty problem, we all know that not every one can be lifted out of poverty because to be lifted will require effort from the individual, we need to stop throwing money at the problem. The money that is being spent by our government to try and help people in poverty is being wasted by passing through all the different bureaucratic hands on its way to the people who could use the help. Lets keep the money that is being sent to Washington to be redistributed to the poor in the local communities where they can redistribute more of the money directly to the people that can use it.

The second step in eliminating poverty is to have jobs available for people to work at. To solve this part of the poverty problem we need to create an environment that is business friendly. If business are not able to hire due to the taxes that are levied against them from the government and regulation that restrict how they operate their business where are the jobs going to come from for those in poverty? When business are able to make profits they expand their businesses which most often requires more employees. So to create the new jobs that will be needed for all those that are now living in poverty we need businesses to be able to create the new jobs.

The third step in eliminating poverty is the taxes that are paid by all those who are earning a living. People need to be able to keep the lion share of what they are earning through the time and effort. This will also have to apply to the people who are willing to take the risk of creating news business ventures which leads to new job creation. When the people get to keep the lion share of their money they will spend it on what they need and not what the government thinks that they need.

The fourth and final step in eliminating poverty is going to be the most difficult of all to implement. This step will require the government to stop the practice of trying to make every ones life as painless as possible. People in poverty will need to have the freedom to be employed as they wish but also be responsible for their decisions regardless whether or not they are good decisions. I know it is hard for people to stand by and watch as some one else is making a mistake, but almost all people learn from their failures and when they try again they do not make the same mistakes.

If this was implemented it would have the following effects:

  1. Reduce Government Spending (Something all people want)
  2. New Job Creation (Something all people want)
  3. Lower Individual Taxes and Business Taxes (Something all people want)
  4. Fewer People On Government Subsidized Program like Welfare (Something all people want)
  5. An Economy the is Growing Due to Demand (Something all people want)
  6. An Employment Market that businesses are competing for Employees (Something all people want)
    1. By the way this would lead to higher wages for the employees due to businesses wanting the best available people and a willingness to pay for them, sound like free market principles being applied to employment.
This is a difficult solution to the problem that effects every one in our country, but the longer we wait the problems grows and the painful solution will grow accordingly.