From: john@anasazi.com (John R. Moore)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.clinton,alt.fan.rush-limbaugh,alt.rush-limbaugh
Subject: Re: Mr. Waffle King (the Dodger)
Date: 5 Nov 92 15:37:15 GMT
Reply-To: john@anasazi.com
Organization: Anasazi Inc, Phoenix AZ USA

Keywords: 

In article <1992Nov3.192759.1086@aio.jsc.nasa.gov> Dr. Norman J. LaFave <lafave@ial4.jsc.nasa.gov> writes:
]In article <Bx5KKr.AHD@news.cso.uiuc.edu> Don Wiggins,
]wiggins@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
]>Gotta tell ya, doc, that I'm certainly better off than I was four years
]>ago, and I'd hardly describe myself as anything close to rich.  Of
]>course I worked my buns off in the process and also took it upon myself
]>to finish up a degree by attending night classes.  Does that make me one
]of
]>the privileged few?
]
]No, it makes you one of the lucky individuals to have the
]opportunity to better themselves. For alot of Americans, these
]opportunities are nonexistent. Programs to allow
]individuals to better their station in life have become
]almost extinct. College tuitions are going up at twice the rate
]of inflation, college scholarships, grants, and loans are getting
]harder and harder to obtain, school vocational programs are being
]cut..... 
PROGRAMS to allow individuals to better their station... Hey, Doc,
there are lots of opportunities out there. They are better with education,
and qualified students today can get a government or institution paid
for college education at many, many quality institutions. Perhaps one
problem is that we are so intent on sending everyone to college, whether
it enhances opportunity or not, that we fail to fund or orient towards
trade schools. Not everyone is college material. Not all college studies
are of much value in opportunity. The common joke (badly stated here
by me) has considerable truth in it:

  An engineer and a scientist are out at lunch. The engineer is discussing
  his work on a new computer system, and the scientist is bragging about
  his research. They are interrupted by a liberal arts graduate who says
    "Would you like fries with your burger, sir?"

Not all opportunity requires college. Many sales jobs have high potential.
Many "burger flipper" jobs are in organizations where anyone who is hard
working can rise through the organization - all they need is basic 
literacy. I am constantly amazed at the successful entrepreneurs that
I encounter who have no college education, came from poor or lower middle
class backgrounds, and have a hell of lot more money than me!

IMHO one of the big problems we face is that we blame society, or lack
of government intervention, for economic failures that are caused by
individuals who fail to take advantage of opportunity. Also, we have
lots of people who are going to have trouble because they chose crime when
young. Teenage mothers obviously are going to lose out because they
denied themselves opportunity by becoming pregnant.

Society isn't perfect, and we can do better, but government programs are
only going to help a few people. The rest need to help themselves!

]For every individual like yourself who claims to be better off,
]there are four or five who are not. Do some volunteer work at
]shelters for the homeless sometime and see the kind of people
]who are there. The days of the homeless being primarily drug addicts
]and vagrants are over.

That really is not true. I have done some work with the homeless, and
I have read the stats. No one in the country need remain homeless for
long unloess they are mentally or emotionally incompetent. We DO have
housing programs. We DO have welfare that provides money that can be
used for rent. We do have lots of jobs at the bottom end of the
economic scale that people could take.

The homeless are still composed of:
  -a large number of people who are schizophrenic, manic depressive,
   or otherwise mentally ill;
  -chemically dependent people;
  -those who choose to be homeless.
  

-- 
John Moore NJ7E, 7525 Clearwater Pkwy, Scottsdale, AZ 85253  (602-951-9326)
john@anasazi.com ncar!noao!asuvax!anasaz!john anasaz!john@asuvax.eas.asu.edu
 - - If a field of study has the word "science" in it - it isn't a science - -
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