Britian and Canda - more crime/violence than America?
Thats right, according to a Washington Times article, a survey/study done between October and December of 2005 found that both Britian and Canda have more crime and more violent crime than the US does (all though Canada leads by only a slim margin).
Read more about it
here.
Welfare Reform Reprised
Despite all the whining and crying that went on at time, both from my home state and at the federal level, welfare reform actually worked, and worked rather well. This can't be said of all government programs and their seemingly inevitable reform attempts, but it is so in this case.
I'm going to borrow a statement from an old US New & World report article that was about a different subject all together and apply it the welfare program and its impact on America. "If this had been imposed by an outside nation, it would have been considered an act of war...".
Specifically, if one were to deliberately attempt to design a system to destroy the value that had allowed the under priviliged and poor to survive everything that had ever been thrown at them up to the '60's, there could not have been a more effective program. And what is it that was attacked and almost completely destroyed? Two parent homes. The poor in America, both in the inner city sweat shops and in the rural area had survived and still managed to better themselves through drought, depressions, a civil war, two world war, discrimination, prejudice, and countless other hurdles. How? Because they, like most the rest of America, had a strong and stable core family and extended families. It may seem like a new discovery today, with recent research papers finally acknowleging what seems obvious to most - a strong family structure that includes two parents is critical in providing stabiliy and insuring a better life its members.
Liberals may make much of the exceptions where abuse and other factors make the family environment a nightmare, but this is just smoke and mirrors. By attempting to make the exception the rule, the real negative effects of single parent families is hidden and glossed over.
And that is what the welfare system as it was enacted created overwhelmingly. It also created a perpetual underclass, generational welfare recipients who have/had no concept of being self sufficient. Humans, like most animals, respond to a reward/punishment environment. Single parent families are/were rewarded at a higher financial level that two parent families and higher rewards were insured by have more children out of wedlock. The result - the core family structure that had been a core strength/virtue across all class lines was all but completely destroyed for the lowest/poorest portion of American society.
The welfare reform act of 1996 reversed over 30 years of the negative impact of welfare by promoting job training/work ethic and attempting to refocus welfare as a hand up and not a hand out. The expectations may have been too low, since the goals posts were all met allowing the 'workfare' requirements to cycle out. To restart this effort and keep the program moving forward, Congress just passed legislation designed to get the workfare program going again. Read more about it at the Heritage Foundation
here.
