Indeed, a built-in unemployment rate is critical to a sound economy. Various experts estimate this natural rate somewhere between 6 and 7 percent, which, not surprisingly, is about where the current national unemployment rate resides. We simply cannot cut off assistance without providing opportunities, or we'll see explosive results. As demonstrated in Los Angeles after the Rodney King verdict, these frustrations can violently unleash themselves, and we quickly realize the powerless are not so powerless after all. But we dare not fool ourselves into thinking there is not a price to be paid for ignoring their plight.
Prisons are expensive, police are expensive, unleashed frustration is expensive.
One way or another, we as a society will pay for meeting the needs of our neighbors. We need to find creative alternatives based on economic and social realities. We have to look beyond political expediency and demagoguery. We have to take count of the true costs and benefits of our reforms. We need to be wary of the temptation to find easy scapegoats.