# # # And now those "other options" don't exist.  We probably agree on this
# # # more than you think--welfare was invented to solve a problem of the
# # # 30's, but the poverty is now so much worse, and our economic infra-
# # # structure has been so eroded, that it just can't keep up any more.
# 
# # You mean, since your philosophy took over, the economy has almost
# # collapsed.
# 
# Excuse me, *my* philosophy?  You don't have any idea what *my* philosophy
# is.  The American economy has had its ups and downs through a number of
# prevailing economic philosophies.  But then, economics is hardly a science.

In my lifetime, your philosophy -- socialism masquerading as a liberal
welfare state -- has been in ascendancy.

# No, I mean exactly what I wrote--the welfare system of the New Deal is
# wholly inadequate to cope with the current state of affairs.

Absolutely.  So the response of socialists is take us even further
into socialism.

# # # # # (2) Whether or not the fathers work
# # # # # is not germane to single mothers.
#  
# # # # Very true.  But the promotion of casual sexuality is something that
# # # # plays a part in the single mother problem.
# 
# # # I'll buy that--and there's lots of reasons for it, extremely far down on
# # # the list being the flash-in-the-pan media attention a bunch of middle-
# # # class dropouts got for their philosophy and experimentation.  
# 
# # Flash-in-the-pan?  No, your subculture has utterly dominated the
# # TV and movie industries for two decades now.
# 
# *My* subculture?  My, we're getting personal.  The only subculture I see
# dominating the TV and movie industries is *money*.  If you'll buy it,
# they'll sell it.  And as recent movements to boycott TV advertisers have
# shown, they're *very* sensitive about what sells.  Whatever happened to
# personal responsibility, anyway?  Or am I personally responsible for
# the decline in that, too?

To the extent that people have been encouraged to NOT be responsible
for themselves, yes.

# # # # Come on.  You and I both know that the major problem of this society
# # # # today isn't a lack of employment, it's a lack of people willing to work.
# 
# # # Huh???  Tell that to the single mother I know who was laid off from
# # # her $10/hour job at a hospital and now works 2 full-time minimum-
# # # wage jobs to barely be able to support herself and her kid.  *Barely.*
# # # Hey, she's too proud to go on public assistance, but the only jobs
# # # she can find are menial and with no benefits.  And no career path
# # # either--they find excuses to lay people off and hire new ones rather
# # # than give raises and perks.  And why not?  It's a lot cheaper.
# 
# # Oddly enough, all the unskilled or semiskilled people I know manage
# # to find employment almost immediately.  Maybe she needs to move to a
# # cheaper part of the country, where jobs are plentiful, and the cost
# # of living is lower.
# 
# The west side of Chicago is about as cheap as it gets--squalor city.
# Tell me about all these places where it's cheap to live and jobs are
# abundant--I'll pass them on.

Sonoma County.

# You live in a strange and wondrous place, sir.  Inexpensive housing,

Not exactly cheap, but not Los Angeles, either.

# lots of employment, and utterly surrounded by socialists.  Well, I suppose
# that's the sort of environment that would attract socialists, or at least
# not dissuade them.

No, it's that areas with a lot of wealthy breed socialists -- all the
spoiled rich kids, feeling guilty about their wealth.  But not guilty
enough to give it away -- they just look for politicians to take MY
more limited wealth away.

# # # I see a lot of people willing--nay, eager--to work.  What I don't see
# # # is a system that makes it at all feasible to do so.  It's not just
# # # welfare, which nobody enjoys, but there just aren't the jobs any more.
# # # When the US was expanding industrial capacity there was always a mill
# # # to go work in--skills to learn, a future.  Now there's only McDonalds.
# 
# # Odd.  Not the experience of anyone I know.  Just the opposite.
# 
# In California???

Yup.

# # # Mr. Cramer, I was there:  Hippiedom was a very low-budget operation.
# # # Our drugs were cheap.
# 
# # The money I was referring to was Aid to Families with Druggie 
# # Cohabitators (AFDC).
# 
# Well, I doubt that much of this goes to drugs--there isn't much left after
# buying food, and there is very little in the first place.  Sure, you read
# about such cases now and then, but that's what makes them news.  Show me
# your statistics about AFDC abuse.

I can tell you that relatives I have known, the drugs came first, the
food was secondary.

# Ken Perlow   ***** *****