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Posted on 05/11/2005 3:55:44 AM PDT by The Great Yazoo
Ministers Louis Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Washington, D.C.'s Mayor Anthony Williams and others recently met to discuss plans to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the October 1995 Million Man March. Whilst reading about the plans, I thought of an excellent topic for the event: how not to be poor.
Avoiding long-term poverty is not rocket science. First, graduate from high school. Second, get married before you have children, and stay married. Third, work at any kind of job, even one that starts out paying the minimum wage. And, finally, avoid engaging in criminal behavior. If you graduate from high school today with a B or C average, in most places in our country there's a low-cost or financially assisted post-high-school education program available to increase your skills.
Most jobs start with wages higher than the minimum wage, which is currently $5.15. A man and his wife, even earning the minimum wage, would earn $21,000 annually. According to the Bureau of Census, in 2003, the poverty threshold for one person was $9,393, for a two-person household it was $12,015, and for a family of four it was $18,810. Taking a minimum-wage job is no great shakes, but it produces an income higher than the Bureau of Census' poverty threshold. Plus, having a job in the first place increases one's prospects for a better job.
The Children's Defense Fund and civil rights organizations frequently whine about the number of black children living in poverty. In 1999, the Bureau of the Census reported that 33.1 percent of black children lived in poverty compared with 13.5 percent of white children. It turns out that race per se has little to do with the difference. Instead, it's welfare and single parenthood. When black children are compared to white children living in identical circumstances, mainly in a two-parent household, both children will have the same probability of being poor.
How much does racial discrimination explain? So far as black poverty is concerned, I'd say little or nothing, which is not to say that every vestige of racial discrimination has been eliminated. But let's pose a few questions. Is it racial discrimination that stops black students from studying and completing high school? Is it racial discrimination that's responsible for the 68 percent illegitimacy rate among blacks?
The 1999 Bureau of Census report might raise another racial discrimination question. Among black households that included a married couple, over 50 percent were middle class earning above $50,000, and 26 percent earned more than $75,000. How in the world did these black families manage not to be poor? Did America's racists cut them some slack?
The civil rights struggle is over, and it has been won. At one time, black Americans did not have the same constitutional protections as whites. Now, we do, because the civil rights struggle is over and won is not the same as saying that there are not major problems for a large segment of the black community. What it does say is that they're not civil rights problems, and to act as if they are leads to a serious misallocation of resources.
Rotten education is a severe handicap to upward mobility, but is it a civil rights problem? Let's look at it. Washington, D.C. public schools, as well as many other big city schools, are little more than educational cesspools. Per student spending in Washington, D.C., is just about the highest in the nation. D.C.'s mayors have been black, and so have a large percentage of the city council, school principals, teachers and superintendents. Suggesting that racial discrimination plays any part in Washington, D.C.'s educational calamity is near madness and diverts attention away from possible solutions.
Bill Cosby had the courage to speak out against individual irresponsibility. Surely those who profess to have the best interests of blacks at heart should be able to summon the courage to do so as well.
©2005 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
I can never figure out if Walter E. Williams is the smartest man in the world or if it's Thomas Sowell, but I'm pretty convinced it's one of the two. I particularly enjoy Williams' columns, and he is my favorite of Rush fill-ins.
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Bump for a good read.
He's the only EIB guest host that I can listen to AT ALL.
One attraction of his Rush fill-ins is that Thomas Sowell often appears.
Thomas Sowell is America's greatest living intellectual, but Walter Williams is a more accessible journalist.
If you're making a list, it better include those two gentlemen.
Good read.
It is sure that they are smart, educated folk, but to say they may be the smartest is probably just racial pandering.
They are consistently willing to state the obvious, and that is why most of us love them. That they are black, is why they are celebrated, by us conservatives, in the light of JJ, Rev Al, etal...
I have my own pick for smartest, but he probably isn't... he just acts like it!
I can truly say that I love to hear and read comments made by Walter E. Williams. His common sense and logic hits the nail right on the head every time and does so with so very few words.
Sure is a marked contrast to Michael Eric Dyson (who has a new book out trashing Cosby's comments).
Dyson is slated to do a book interview on C-SPAM2 Sunday at 9 pm.
I see. Noted.
Explain to me how this is racial pandering. It might be exaggeration for effect - maybe - but their race has nothing to do with it. My opinion is that as economists writing about public policy they have no peers - particularly Sowell in the arena of education. You're certainly free to disagree with me, but that's just an absurd accusation.
If we're using "smartest" as a shorthand term to praise a person's intellectual output, Thomas Sowell would have to be included irrespective of his race. I don't find Mr. Williams' work to be comparably original and deep, although he is certainly a solid economist and a clever writer and speaker.
Milton Friedman is often compared to Thomas Sowell, which makes sense, since he is Dr. Sowell's intellectual mentor. Judge Robert Bork is also a great and productive mind. Others could be named (but I need more coffee).
You're predicament is not half as bad as Hillary's when she discovered that not only is she not the smartest woman in the world... but that the smartest woman in the world is closer to the WhiteHouse and to being president than Hillary is.
My wife isn't running for president.
LOL! It's amazing, really, how many people who consider themselves intelligent, and who have (if nothing else) many years of higher education, are still unable to assimilate the dazzlingly obvious facts presented in Mr. Williams' column.
Black by popular demand ping.
Best advice I ever heard was from Ed Beckley, one of the original TV real estate hucksters. He said, "If you don't want to be poor, go out and look at what the poor people do. Then don't do it! it's so simple!"
YES it is Walter! Those people hate whites so much that they refuse to "play the game" and act white in any way. Even to the point of refusing to pull up their pants or get out of the street when those white people are trying to get to work. Black racism is what prevents them from getting married, getting jobs, fathering their children or simply being satisfied with a few beers on weekends rather than crack.
Not only are they both smart as whips and very courageous, but both have the unique ability (not shared by most smart people) to actually have original thoughts.
I agree. I like him especially because when he fills in for Rush he always has Thomas Sowell on as a guest.
BTW, did you see Sowell on Hannity & whats his face the other night. He made whats his face look like a fool. Easy to do I suppose but enjoyable nonetheless.
This is " pat the n..... on the head" stuff. I have nothing but the greatest respect for these guys, but having had many personal discussions with a certain black Supreme Court Justice, I can say that HE is head and shoulders above both!
Too many people seek role models, but find them lacking in one area or another. If you want the best model, pick the best person.
These guys are role models, but not just for the black community. They are role models for all up and coming conservatives! To constantly point to their black-ness, is not descriptive, it is bigotry, and places them on a separate scale...
Ben Stein is a Jew. They are often reviled more than blacks, but you never hear him named as that Jew, Ben Stein!
I can't understand why Rush doesn't use him more often. He is AWESOME!
Common Sense has been outlawed by Congress.
Dittoes!
ping for later read
Damn.
Second, get married before you have children, and stay married.
Damn.
Third, work at any kind of job, even one that starts out paying the minimum wage.
Damn.
And, finally, avoid engaging in criminal behavior.
Damn.
I'm screwed.
bump for later
How anyone can label a declaration of Sowell as one of our greatest intellectuals "pandering" is beyond me.
So far, you're the only one to mention their race. I brought up their intelligence.
This is " pat the n..... on the head" stuff
Who exactly are you talking to?
He is "one of the" smartest... But, that is not what was said, in the post to which I responded.
It's a pet peeve! Broad statements (like this one), with sweeping exagerations, are like lousy novels. They lack the ability to provoke rational responses...
There are plenty of minds to be considered! What if the smartest guy is a little Tibetan monk?
Your response may prove to the point.
Noted.
Dunno, but he cracks me up when he talks about Mrs. Williams.
Remember "OPM"? What's OPM, you ask?... drumroll please... "other people's money"!
My head hurts.
It should come with a "do not try this at home" disclaimer. I've attempted to suggest to my wife that perhaps she should clean the gutters, but it's not been met with very good results.
Conservative, not Republican, Bump!
Bigotry is an amazing thing. It shows in everything we do and say! It is subtle, and colorblind.
We question the words, and motives, of other people to determine whether they "think like us". We try to determine whether we should have 'fellowship" with them, or shun them.
Color is a fact of life, and so is intelligence. We are all granted enough of each, to make us who we are...
Sorry if I am offensive. I just want us all to get along...
> Dunno, but he cracks me up when he talks about Mrs. Williams.<
His conversations about Mrs Williams must send every militant Code Pink-O into foaming-at-the-mouth fits. Heh, heh. Makes me love Dr Williams even more.
Dyson? I'll be sure NOT to watch.
That's Hannity and Puke, don't you know nothin'?
Don't stop now.
LOL!
There is no blame game here. The article owns responsibility. It's a good thing that there are black leaders who recognize their responsiblities to themselves and their black community.
I'm heading out to the mountain, to go walking with my dog! He will run for about five miles, in front of the car. Then, I walk 3-5 miles on the trail, while he is incessantly criss-crossing and backtracking, running constantly. I get back in the car, and he runs another 2 miles to the lake, where he goes for a swim. I like that part, because he rarely misses a puddle...
I think my time will be better used this morning! My feet are getting in the way!
I'd be willing to bet Mr. Williams rarely tries any of his claims at home. I was driving once when he mentioned he was purchasing Mrs. Williams an ironing board for their anniversary. It was most entertaining.
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