The War on Poverty is an utter failure - Walter Williams' documentary

[rambone]

Here is a cool documentary on the War on Poverty. It is based on the works of Walter Williams, who seems to have a pretty good grasp of the way a capitalist system ought to operate. For your enjoyment:

Dr. Williams presents the following solutions to these problems:

Failing Public Schools - Give parents greater control over their children's education by setting up a tuition tax credit or voucher system to broaden competition in turn revitalizing both public and non-public schools

Minimum Wages - Remove the minimum wage from youngsters to give more young people the chance to learn the world of work at an early age instead spending their free time idle an possibly falling into the habits of the street

Restrictive Labor Laws, Jobs Programs - Eliminate government roadblocks that prevent new entrepreneurs from starting their own business

Welfare Programs - Enact a compassionate welfare system such as a negative income tax which would remove dependency and dis-incentives for the poor to get themselves out of poverty

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1r-r6iLBEI

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DS0XXFdyfI

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqMuLNWL_Qo

 

[TheRude1]

Mr. Williams is a great American !

 

[ghunter]

Williams is one of the best. He can take the very dry and complicated and turn it into something interesting and easy to understand.

 

[Kagnew]

Oh, come on. A statist program started by the beloved LBJ failing? How can that be?

 

[IndyDave1776]

The 'War on Poverty' is not a failure!

I believe that it is absolutely unfair to characterize the hard work of our illustrious President Johnson as a failure. He succeeded at realizing the dream of Presidents F.D. Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson in creating a class of permanent and reliable voters who will support whomever promises them the most from the labors of others in return for giving absolutely nothing other than political support and functioning as the perfect sheep who rarely get out of line, or at least do no do so in ways that offend the powers that be in the halls of government. His brilliant plan placed these people in a position in which they cannot fail to live according to his expectation as they have become dependent upon direct government support for their continued existence. As a further consequence, it has bled the resources of responsible citizens to such a point that they are unable to afford effective resistance and are too busy in the ceaseless effort required to simply make a living in addition to this colossal burden that they are effectively nullified as opposition. This, in tandem with flagrantly disregarding our Constitution and severely blurring the distinction between a republic and a democracy has set in motion the seemingly unstoppable progress toward the centralization of power, political and temporal, in the hands of the federal government and not those of the people to whom it rightly belongs all because of the successful work of a great traitor enlisting the aid of many lesser traitors. No, the 'War on Poverty' is far from being a failure.

 

[ghunter]

The video is a generation old, but it is even more relevant today than it was in the early 80's. Props to Rambone for digging up this gem and dusting it off.

 

[downzero]

On a related note, I encourage all of you to see the "Free to Choose" series, including its 1990 update, as well. It's available free online at the same website as these videos:

Free To Choose Network