Paul Ryan & Anti-Poverty Programming

So Paul Ryan and the Republicants have announced a 35 page long anti poverty program.

I'll bet it does not include any of the following:

1. A guaranteed place to live: So many poor people can't get jobs or any sort of financial help because they lack permanent, affordable housing. No place to call home leads to so many of society's problems, from joblessness to poor performance in schools, among so many others.

2. Guaranteed food: Yes, you need food to live and I can go to several areas in Buffalo, Rochester, and other poor communities where they have “food deserts” - The only convenient place to get food is a corner gas station where fresh fruits and vegetables are in short (meaning not at all) supply. Garbage food leads to diabetes, obesity, and other health problems. This leads us to…..

3. Universal / Single Payer Health Care or Insurance: If you are sick, you need a doctor and what percentage of Americans have no health insurance and can't afford a visit to the doctor's office? So many poor people use the Emergency Room for health care rather than a regular doctor's office. It costs society more and makes the illness harder to treat.

4. A guaranteed education, including vocational training: From vocational school to doctors, engineers, and whatever else society may need, it all starts with education and we are more fixated on test results than actual learning. (I can guarantee you that I have students that can kill any test you set before them and will still need remedial education after taking their college entrance exams.) We need to focus more on learning and less on testing. And we can make it free at that.

Granted, we'll pay more in taxes for all this. But we'll be paying less because all these things listed (and more I'm sure) are preventative in nature.

And the cliché is “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” It costs less to prevent the problem than to try and cure it.

Applying it to the real world, socialist ideas (the ounce of prevention) costs us less than the capitalist cures.

I can live with that.