On Fri, 29 Jul 2011 13:14:57 -0700, busbus wrote:

My plan would be to
train these people in whatever they want. If they want to be a plumber,
go for it.

Oh boy, another idealist :-). A great idea, but it runs into a brick
wall of reality.

A lot of those folks aren't trainable. By definition, half the
population is of below average intelligence. If someones mother was a
alkie or a drug addict, or even just had really bad eating habits, that
person is going to be considerably below the average.

Even that problem could be overcome if we could somehow bring back more
manual labor jobs, but the only way that would happen is with another
CCC. Still government assistance, but at least with some return.

But another problem remains. Some of the people you're trying to change
just plain don't want to work. How many times have we heard of some
black kid trying to better himself while the local gang members accuse
him of "acting white". And I'm not picking on black folks. The same
attitudes exist in other groups such as the "po' white trash" who accuse
a child in similar circumstances of "acting uppity" or "above himself".

And they pass those attitudes on to their children. The only way you'll
break that cycle is to remove the kids at birth and give them to a family
that will raise them properly. And even that doesn't solve the problem
of those who are born brain-damaged.

I'm an idealist too. But time has made me a cynical idealist.

--
Intelligence is an experiment that failed - G. B. Shaw