How to Fix the Ghetto.

[GardoneVT]

Goodness knows well never see concrete solutions from the government, so I pose the question to LEOs and other folks who've grown up and worked in the urban cesspools of America.

As a black man who left the city for his own life and future, it's distressing to see many in the inner city perpetuating criminal living like it's a positive thing. When I was growing up a common question I'd get from the women at my high school was "wat gang u wit".Upon answering" none" they'd promptly leave my company for someone with "rep". I got called more names then I can remember for wearing glasses and reading books in high school, while the drug dealers were socially elevated as people to look up to.

We know gun control, zero tolerance, metal detectors, and welfare don't work. All those programs have done is help establish a culture which says following the law is for suckers, and 'real men' hustle. Until someone gets shot or locked up, in which case it's the government's fault.

How do we actually fix that problem? How can we bring civilization back to the inner city, if it's possible?

[TCinVA]

I'd say step one is reassessing programs intended to "help" people in the ghetto, which a lot of credible evidence shows to be doing precisely the opposite.

Everyone responds to incentives. The ghetto is the ghetto because there are a ton of perverse incentives in play. Removing the incentives is necessary to begin changing the diseased culture that results in the worst aspects of the 'hood.

[Duces Tecum]

[URL="http://www.amazon.com/Please-Stop-Helping-Us-Liberals/dp/1594037256/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404838044&sr=8-1&keywords=please+stop+helping+us"]Everyone responds to incentives. The ghetto is the ghetto because there are a ton of perverse incentives in play. Removing the incentives is necessary to begin changing the diseased culture that results in the worst aspects of the 'hood.

The May/June issue of Imprimis features an article on this subject ("The Worldview that Makes the Underclass") The writer's point is consistent with TC's observation. Simply put, welfare (as distinct from charity) produces a victim mentality and everybody loses.

imprimis.hillsdale.edu/file/2014_05_06_Imprimis.pdf

[TAZ]

I'd say step one is reassessing programs intended to "help" people in the ghetto, which a lot of credible evidence shows to be doing precisely the opposite.

Everyone responds to incentives. The ghetto is the ghetto because there are a ton of perverse incentives in play. Removing the incentives is necessary to begin changing the diseased culture that results in the worst aspects of the 'hood.

Bingo. Why should people change their ways when they are rewarded for their behavior. As a society we have chosen, or at least allowed our leadership to consistently reward bad behavior. Hard to teach a dog to sit when you give it treats every time it runs away and ignore it when it does sit. The constant in lots of government programs is the rewarding bad behavior. Get pregnant as a HS student Don't worry we'll give you child care and some $$ to help you. Drop out of school; don't worry we'll give you a place to live and some free food.

Change that retardedness and you'll change the Gheto. Otherwise you're pissing in the wind.

[JHC]

Following along the lines of previous posts; I'm thinking it's got to be a bit more uncomfortable to be a deadbeat. Our "poverty level" cannot include consumer electronics, free cell phone.

The socialist paradise of Sweden saw years ago the unsustainable trajectory of their entitlement spend. They rationally tweaked it down so that it tops out per adult and doesn't keep climbing per dependent. Sweden's % of adults in the work force is dramatically higher the USA's even though this welfare safety net is there for them if they stop working. It's just not that much fun to go that route there anymore.

If that were proposed here (by say Paul Ryan or someone) they'd be compared to Stalin.

[RoyGBiv]

I had hoped, in 2008, that Mr. Hope and Change would be a better example, a leader, instead of Al Sharpton with a Harvard tongue. What a wasted opportunity to close the divide. For a man raised from humble beginnings, in a mixed race family, partly in Indonesia, to ascend to the highest political office in the world and so completely squander the opportunity to be a racial bridge builder is among the greatest failures of his presidency. The only difference between Obama and Sharpton is that Obama is better at division.

The solution must come from within the black community. Whitey can tell you what's good for you until he turns blue from the effort. Until there's a credible movement within the community to throw off the shackles of government assistance, nothing will get better.

Let's look at the Asian community for an example. Although brought to this country under less duress, "Coolie" laborers, almost as easily identifiable as a member of their ethnic group as blacks and denegrated by US Presidents as recently as Roosevelt (Teddy) and Harding, managed to raise themselves from poverty by working together, providing mutual aid and throwing the criminals out from amongst them. Chinatown of the late 1890's was as ghetto as it gets. The impetus for change came from within that community, as it must for any real change to take root.

Blacks have it especially tough. The media gives a platform to folks like Sharpton and denigrates folks like Clarence Thomas, Allen West, Tim Scott and even Bill Cosby, who the media is all to happy to question as a "race traitor" for pointing a finger of responsibility at poor parenting and delinquent children.

It's been 30+ years since I was a white teen living in a (mostly) black community, going to 95% black inner-city schools, so, I don't really know squat about today's realities. But I can tell you with certainty that there's not a white guy on the planet that can fix it. The white man's got no cred.

The good news, as evidenced by the 2008 presidential landslide, is that there's a lot of white guilt, ready to be part of the solution when one emerges. Too bad Mr. Hope and Change is no kind of leader. Too bad, for all of us.

[Tamara]

I had hoped, in 2008, that Mr. Hope and Change would be a better example, a leader, instead of Al Sharpton with a Harvard tongue. What a wasted opportunity to close the divide. For a man raised from humble beginnings, in a mixed race family, partly in Indonesia, to ascend to the highest political office in the world and so completely squander the opportunity to be a racial bridge builder is among the greatest failures of his presidency. The only difference between Obama and Sharpton is that Obama is better at division.

The solution must come from within the black community. Whitey can tell you what's good for you until he turns blue from the effort.

Who's going to tell Whitey what's good for him?

If you put people in zoos, they will act like animals. It's that simple.

[RoyGBiv]

Who's going to tell Whitey what's good for him?

If you put people in zoos, they will act like animals. It's that simple.

I came from a "zoo". I saw it for what it was. I walked. Other people have done it. Many others.
Nobody "put" me there. Nobody "kept" me there. It was my parents choice to enter, it was my choice to leave. They left too once they were shown a better place.

The problem is that the people who remain are led by self-serving haters and those that would look inward for the root causes are shouted down. I remember a ton of good people in my zoo. Good family people who were raising their kids well. I never did understand why they chose to stay, but not fight. If you're gonna stay in the zoo, you gotta fight to make sure your neighbors don't defecate in your stream.

This won't get fixed from the outside.

[TCinVA]

Who's going to tell Whitey what's good for him?

If you put people in zoos, they will act like animals. It's that simple.

Great article. My family's roots are in Appalachia from Logan County West Virginia down through Kentucky and South Carolina. His observations are dead on.

[GardoneVT]

Who's going to tell Whitey what's good for him?

If you put people in zoos, they will act like animals. It's that simple.

Yet, the folks in Appalachia seem to avoid shooting each other daily over "disrespect".