Back on Uncle Sam's Plantation By Star Parker Six years ago I wrote a book called "Uncle Sam's Plantation." I wrote the book to tell my own story of what I saw living inside the welfare state and my own transformation out of it. I said in that book that indeed there are two Americas. A poor America on socialism and a wealthy America on capitalism. I talked about government programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training (JOBS), Emergency Assistance to Needy Families with Children (EANF), Section 8 Housing, and Food Stamps. A vast sea of, perhaps, well intentioned government programs, all initially set into motion in the 1960's, that were going to lift the nation's poor out of poverty. A benevolent Uncle Sam welcomed mostly poor black Americans onto the government plantation. Those who accepted the invitation switched mindsets from "How do I take care of myself?" to "What do I have to do to stay on the plantation?" Instead of solving economic problems, government welfare socialism created monstrous moral and spiritual problems. The kind of problems that are inevitable when individuals turn responsibility for their lives over to others. The legacy of American socialism is our blighted inner cities, dysfunctional inner city schools, and broken black families. Through God's grace, I found my way out. It was then that I understood what freedom meant and how great this country is. I had the privilege of working on welfare reform in 1996, passed by a Republican congress and signed into law by a Democrat president. A few years after enactment, welfare roles were down fifty percent. I thought we were on the road to moving socialism out of our poor black communities and replacing it with wealth producing American capitalism. But, incredibly, we are going in the opposite direction. Instead of poor America on socialism becoming more like rich American on capitalism, rich America on capitalism is becoming like poor America on socialism. Uncle Sam has welcomed our banks onto the plantation and they have said, "Thank you, Suh." Now, instead of thinking about what creative things need to be done to serve customers, they are thinking about what they have to tell Massah in order to get their cash. There is some kind of irony that this is all happening under our first black president on the 200th anniversary of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln. Worse, socialism seems to be the element of our new young president. And maybe even more troubling, our corporate executives seem happy to move onto the plantation. In an op-ed on the opinion page of the Washington Post, Mr. Obama is clear that the goal of his trillion dollar spending plan is much more than short term economic stimulus. "This plan is more than a prescription for short-term spending, it's a strategy for America's long-term growth and opportunity in areas such as renewable energy, health care, and education." Perhaps more incredibly, Obama seems to think that government taking over an economy is a new idea. Or that massive growth in government can take place "…with unprecedented transparency and accountability." Yes sir, we heard it from Jimmy Carter when he created the Department of Energy, the Synfuels Corporation, and the Department of Education. Or how about the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 - The War on Poverty - which President Johnson said "...does not merely expand old programs or improve what is already being done. It charts a new course. It strikes at the causes, not just the consequences of poverty." Trillions of dollars later, black poverty is the same. But black families are not, with triple the incidence of single parent homes and out of wedlock births. It's not complicated. Americans can accept Barack Obama's invitation to move onto the plantation. Or they can choose personal responsibility and freedom. Does anyone really need to think about what the choice should be? http://gerryporter.blogspot.com/2011/07/back-on-uncle-sams-plantation.html
As someone who used to work for both the state and feds in social services I can state that about 60-70% of the money spent on social services is wasted money.
Hell, you could probably make that case about most government spending. Any time I've been around a government organization I have been shocked about the wasteful spending.
The federal government may be the most irresponsible, wasteful, and bloated bureaucracy in the history of mankind. Not to mention the fact that they enslave the people they are supposed to help.
When I was working for the feds with homeless & incarcerated vets thru the State Employment Dept, where I had my office. At that time there was an entity called JTPA (I think those were the initials- then it got changed to WIA or something like that). Anyway, for some reason or another most people receiving unemployment had to go to their "classes". They also held out the carrot of sending attendees to college classes. Those 2 hour classes consisted of 'how to dress for an interview', 'how to fill out an application' [I actually sat in on that one. Tips like 'be sure to write legibly', 'don't wad up an application', 'just leave questions blank you don't understand'... stick out in my mind], a 3-part class on 'how to complete a simple resume'... The problem was that the state employment dept employees were better trained in those areas and could easily assist people with that stuff. In my brief stint with the employment dept there I was their resume expert. So anyway, if the people failed to attend the classes they had their checks held up. I'd venture to say 95% of the people forced to show up never participated, they just sat around and read magazines... They had to attend until their benefits ran out. If all that happened, then they got to attend those promised college classes. It was one class per semester and it was usually on 'how to look for work' or something along those lines. Anyway, the people in this program remained on the books for JTPA for several years. If during that time they happened to find a job (which the vast majority did without any thanks to JTPA) then JTPA got to count it as a 'success' and got full credit for the job. Those lofty stats were relayed to Congress every year for more staffing and more money. With the money, they started building their own buildings, adding more staff... and it was all BS. 100% wasted money and duplication of services. Clinton had the great idea of eliminating JTPA, making the employment dept people into counselors and give them real authority to send pople to truck driving schools, full enrollment in a CC program... really make a swift difference in people's lives. But Congress not only rejected his idea, but expanded the JTPA and gave it a new name to protect them. We figured that nationwide that program alone was about $300,000,000 or more yearly and served no purpose whatsoever. But that is one of many examples I can give you. There was one program (the name I just can't remember), but they actually had employees who had no job. They literally did nothing and had no job description. They'd show up, play internet, go home, come back mid afternoon... it was funny as hell. We had 6 of them between the Hood River & The Dalles offices alone. I want to say they were affiliated with the federal economists, but I just can't recall.
I could see how that program would be an easy sell to voters. It helps vets AND creates jobs I can also see how it would damage a politicians reputation if a he/she were to vote for axing the program. It would seem like that person was "anti-military" and and voted to kill a program that helped X amount of vets get a job.
Here's something interesting. JTPA is a 100% waste of tax money, yet it grows and grows. The vet assistance program I was in did some unbelievable things (and I mean unbelievable) and we got our funding cut except fort he major cities- where it was expanded.
I recently went through the iSkills (Oregon Unemployment Division) program, then completed the course to receive my National Career Readiness Certificate through which I attained Gold status. I am now bonafide............................................................................I guess.
