Ignorance is Bliss

I'm apparently a VERY slow reader. I'm still wading my way through God's Politics. Of course it doesn't help that I read like once a week for half and hour. But I've decided as much as I enjoy this type of reading, I really shouldn't know anything about what the government does. It just REALLY irritates me. Ignorance is bliss.

The chapter I just finished was all about poverty and various policies regarding taxes and other things. For instance, it was talking about this child tax credit that was going to be giving money back to families but at the last minute the change was made to make it so that people in a lower income bracket wouldn't get the tax credit, only middle-upper class families would. What in the world!! You mean to tell me that there was free money going around and it went to families who didn't really need it in the first place because it's better to stimulate the economy by getting middle class families to spend more time at the mall than it is to help families who can barely feed their children from week to week? That's just sick.

The point the chapter made several times was that families who are working to provide for their families should have food to eat and a home to live in. Unfortunately many people living at the poverty level are working and doing the best they can but they can't keep up because their jobs don't provide adequate health care and the cost of owning a home or renting an apartment is astronmical and the cost of child care in order for single mothers to be able to work in the first place is insane.

Churches should be doing more than they do. I won't argue with that point. However, the government needs to have policies in affect that help those in the lower class rather than always favoring upper class families. The welfare system doesn't need to be dismantled, it needs to be changed so that working single moms have adequate childcare and all children have good health care available to them as well as proper education and people who are willing and physical able to better themselves by going to college to get more education to get a better job should be afforded that right without it causing them not to be able to pay for their housing.

Families who work should not be homeless. I spent some time at a homeless shelter and the gentleman giving the tour talked about how they have families living there who have both parents working but they lost their apartment because they couldn't make rent and then of course when they do get back of their feet, who will rent to them after being evicted. It's a nasty cycle that faith-based organizations need to be a part of solving but so does the government.

Tax breaks for rich people are not the answer. Cutting welfare programs is not the answer. Using the poor as a pawn for campaigns but never following through on promises is not the answer. Placing blame is not the answer either. The poor are caught in a battle of words between the two strong political parties but all the words aren't helping. The parties need to come together to work on a positive solution to the issues that face people living under the poverty level today.