THE HALLMARK OF THE UNDERCLASS

ncpa.org ^ | Thursday, October 06, 2005

[InvisibleChurch]

THE HALLMARK OF THE UNDERCLASS

Daily Policy Digest

ECONOMIC ISSUES

Thursday, October 06, 2005

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Versions of every program being proposed by the administration in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina have been tried before and evaluated. We already know that the programs are mismatched with the characteristics of the underclass, says Charles Murray of the American Enterprise Institute.

Job training? Unemployment in the underclass is not caused by lack of jobs or of job skills, but by the inability to get up every morning and go to work. A homesteading act? The lack of home ownership is not caused by the inability to save money from meager earnings, but because the concept of thrift is alien. You name it, we've tried it. It doesn't work with the underclass, says Murray.

Consider:

The crime rate has been dropping for 13 years, but the proportion of young men who grow up unsocialized and who, given the opportunity, commit crimes, has not; criminality, measured by the percentage of the population under correctional supervision has risen from 1.9 percent in 1992 to 2.4 percent in 2003. Among black males ages 20-24, the percentage not working or looking for work in 1954 was 9 percent, but that rate grew to 30 percent in 1999, a year when employers were frantically seeking workers for every level of job. The illegitimacy ratio, the percentage of births by single women, was 4 percent in the 1950s and has risen to 35 percent as of 2003; the black illegitimacy ratio in 2003 was 68 percent, up from 24 percent in the 1960s. Poor people who are not part of the underclass seldom need help to get out of poverty. Despite the exceptions that get the newspaper ink, the statistical reality is that people who get into the American job market and stay there seldom remain poor unless they do something self-destructive. And behaving self-destructively is the hallmark of the underclass, says Murray.

Source: Charles Murray, "The Hallmark of the Underclass," Wall Street Journal, September 29, 2005.

For text (subscription required):

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112795305361255317,00.html

For more on Economy:

http://www.ncpa.org/iss/eco/

[InvisibleChurch]

and which america do you belong to?

[SMARTY]

You mean that I'm not the only one in that boat??!! I had to take a part time job to help and it is not enough hours so I will probably look for a third job too.

[master thesis]

Property taxes fund education, how could you expect any minority group to build a good education system since 1965.

[thebaron512]

Ignoring the problem if they are black, white, yellow is not going to make the problem go away.

[master thesis]

Maybe I just like to argue and keep a good perspective so I don't feel too black hearted.

But with all that said, if we enforce the "Robin Hood plan" to fund all schools equally, no school would be satisfactory.

There just isn't enough money for any thing as long as we try to be more efficient than any other nation in the new globalized economy.

[thebaron512]

Spending more money on education is not going fix the problems. It is an attitude problem, not a money problem. Many countries spend less on education per student and get better results. The Feds dump money into lower income schools with no real results, so blaming local taxes is not the solution.

[SMARTY]

The underclass and poor in the US can get themselves to the emergency room (their family physician) for treatment, can get a break on housing and food, can have all sorts of benefits in addition to this and yet they all have the most up to the minute high tech stereo, vcr, TV, car stereo, etc and tons of other material goodies I cannot afford. For all the benefits, free doctors, dentists, food, housing, etc...they do NOT know what a bill looks like. I did not have medical benefits until 3 years ago, and every year the premium has increased while the benefits have diminished. Bet they don't have that problem. But they are still calling themselves 'poor'..that's a laugh

[Terabitten]

Thats a very ignorant thing to say. 25% of minorities live under poverty, what do you think that number was before 1965, was it their fault then? Why don't you try something; go to an inner city school and try to blame that on minorities.

I believe we have very different definitions of poverty, and that was the point of my previous post.

I've spent plenty of time in the 3rd world. I've been places where "middle class" meant you had a dirt floor, one room "house" and maybe electricity sometimes. I've seen entire families living in appliance boxes, with some plastic sheeting on top to keep the rain out.

Go to that same inner city school, and try to find a single student who lives in a household without an automobile, electricity, running water, and a color TV.

We are so wealthy as a society that we have a skewed view of what poverty is. The truly poor people I've met all around the world would *love* to live in American "poverty."

[Terabitten]

I think your answer is:

Master Thesis
Since Oct 6, 2005

[RockinRight]

A lot of the so-called "poor" ALSO own homes!! Well...they may not have much equity but their names are on title.

[Terabitten]

Late night TV and partying and "the early bird..." do not mix.

I dunno, I can go for a couple days before it catches up to me LOL....

[master thesis]

Agreed, the attitude of the impoverished will keep them in perpetual poverty.

I know we as capitalists can never condone this attitude, I just people would have a little more understanding toward the integral population.

We just can't expect them to change attitudes in 40 years.

Uneducated parents raise uneducated children.

[cotton1706]

"The government cannot relieve from toil"
"The final solution from unemployment is work."

Calvin Coolidge

[Terabitten]

Uneducated parents raise uneducated children.

No, unMOTIVATED parents raise uneducated children.

Read the bio for General Honore. His parents were sharecroppers, but they wanted a better life for their children, so they motivated him to get an education. Now, the son of a Louisiana sharecropper is a three star general.

[justshutupandtakeit]

The Underclass creates nothing it only destroys that which the productive have built. The education available to it is paid for by those who work.

[Gay State Conservative]

Thats a very ignorant thing to say. 25% of minorities live under poverty, what do you think that number was before 1965, was it their fault then? Why don't you try something; go to an inner city school and try to blame that on minorities.

I wanna tell ya something,newcomer...I,unlike most folks in this country (and in the West,for that matter) have walked the streets of Delhi,Dar Es Salaam and Lusaka and have traveled the rural roads ("roads" being used generously here) of Tanzania,Zambia and Malawi.

I have also seen a lot of "inner city" Boston,parts of Harlem and the Bronx as well as other "inner city" areas.

I have,as well,worked in the Emergency Room of a major Boston hospital that serves the "inner city" for 20 years...and I'm here to tell ya that very,very few (if any) people in this country know *real* poverty (as in Tanzania/India) through no fault of their own.

In more than a few parts of the world,"poverty" means black kids with red hair,swollen bellies and little stick legs (I've personally come within a few feet of such a kid) whereas,in this country,"poverty" means taking the bus because you can't afford a car.

[derllak]

I feel your pain! I'm a member of that club too!

[auntyfemenist]

When I go into a failing school, where kids are attacking teachers, refuse to participate in class and learn and actually value disrespect and antisocial behavior, I think there is a problem at home that allows these developments.

Many poor and underclass people have been sent the message that they don't have to explain why they engage in immoral behavior and refuse to cultivate any virtues. They don't have to be accountable for inflicting upon society children they have neglected and taught to be impertinent to all authority. All this is subsidized by the federal government.

Poverty is not the problem, lack of accountability, even to one's self, is. Funny how all those figures jumped drastically and have kept rising since 1965.

[YankeeGirl]

When kids attend school sporadically because their parents don't get them up and out of the house in time to catch free transportation who is to blame?

When they don't come in with a writing implement, but have a cell phone and the teacher has already distributed boxes of pens she bought herself, who is to blame?

When kids are tired at school because they are staying up too late who is to blame?

When teachers can't convince parents to come in for a conference about their kids' progress, who is to blame?

Friends who teach in the inner city amaze me with stories of how some parents just have a problem with getting their kids to school every day. And if a parent is unable to do this because they are drunk or ignorant, just who is to blame????

And this is not the case with every minority student. Plenty of "minority" students have no problems and do quite well in inner city schools.

Being poor, or living in a crappy neighborhood isn't the problem. Its the mindset of the underclass. My friend, a building maintenance man, asked a mother why her kids weren't in school and were lounging on the couch watching tv. She said, "They got up too late for the bus." Just who is to blame?

[master thesis]

Luckily this is America and we don't have to compare our poor with 3rd world nations.

Are you saying the poor in America are selfish for comparing themselves to other Americans?