If he really wanted to... what could the president do that would reduce (or eliminate) poverty in America?

Question

Everyone has an opinion. Please post yours here. Thanks.

Answer 1

Promote personal responsibility, reduce/reform welfare and end the current tax system and promote a consumption (fair) tax system.

Answer 2

President Bush cant eliminate poverty.
No president can.
Poverty is a function of economic systems,

Poverty is a necessary state of capitalism.
Since resources are scarce, and their distribution uneven, some people will always have more than others. Those with less or no resources are poor.

In a capitalistic system, some must be poor.

History has proven that a forced redistribution that makes everyone equal will not work.

Some small redistribution is helpful.
In the US it maintains a middle class.
But there will always have to be some individuals that must have nothing. It is by design.

So there is not anything any president can do to elimiate poverty.

Answer 3

Junking our oppressive welfare agencies would be a good start. All that they do is keep people in the cycle of poverty - that is also known as slavery. I'm not suggesting people never need assistance, it shouldn't be a lifestyle. Our government agencies should be such as to provide the means and opportunity for people to get out of the cycle. However, remember too that most people who are homeless, are there by their own choices, and many stay there by there own choice. While some are because of mental reasons, others are not. The poor are always going to be with us, but we can take a different approach than a failed system that has spent $6.4 trillion with negative results.

Answer 4

Eliminating poverty MIGHT be possible if you could surgically remove "greed" from rich peoples brains. In order to eliminate poverty in the US, we need to shut up rich people who dont want to give up their money. It would take so much planning, you'de hafta analyze incomes and such of almost all jobs + plans like medicare, etc. and determine exactly how you could rebalance the flow of money. It would take another FDR, the current president is too wrapped up in the war and congress to even have a second to spare to make some plan for poverty.

its so complicated its mind blowing. Besides, the poverty in america is not bad. The unemployment rate is lower then it has ever been documented.. thanks to Bush. Also, minimum wage is higher then it is in any other country. The poor people in this country who live on the streets dont even have it as bad as some other people overseas. A poor person in america has to sleep on benches covered by blankets and have little-to-no friends/social life. Pretty sucky ill say. But they also have buildings in cities in which they can get some food and shelter. Not ideal, but atleast they have SOMETHING. A poor person in Africa weighs 60 lbs, they have no gov't support, they wear skins of animals they had to kill themselves just to get some food, and they often have to battle various diseases every day. Thats the poverty America really needs to help.
A poor person in the middle east gets a house and everything paid for them, only catch is they hafta wear a bomb on their chest for Osama and go blow up some civilian bus. (ok that was some comic relief.. lol)

For now, i think poor people who have no-way out, which does exist for not all, but some poor people... should be given medals... to show our respect for those who take the bullet and struggle every day so that 75% of the rest of the self-centered greedy US population can have the money to live the life they always imagined.

because of poor people, you have a beautiful house to sleep in every day. Im no liberal, but this is economical truth. =/

You dont hafta join any shelter communities or anything, leave that to the Libs.
Just donate w/e you can to help out the people who really give you everything you own.

Answer 5

Nothing! It's a people problem. People can solve their own problems. Poverty will never disappear and it's not the govt.s place to try to "fix" it. People are supposed to support themselves by working for a living instead of sitting around waiting for next month's dole as libs tend to do. Only if you're disabled and can't work should anybody get the benefits their taxes paid for while working.

Answer 6

Poverty reduction is more complex than simply getting a job. Many people have two or more jobs and they are still poor. While working at these two or more jobs, they lack the money and time to upgrade their skills to get a better job.

Further, not everybody can work. Some people have medical problems that prevent them from working. Others do not have access to transportation or daycare. For others, the labour market doesn't recognize their skills and they end up relegated to low-wage, contingent jobs that can disappear as fast as they were created.

There are also not enough jobs in the labour market for everybody that wants one. Some people are working a lot of overtime, while others are involuntarily cut to part-time hours.

Your emphasis on education and training is false economy. I know many college and university educated folks that cannot find work in this so-called "new economy", but are still stuck with student loans that add up to more than a mortgage on a reasonably priced home.

In order to better understand poverty, we have to stop this mentality about how much of our tax dollars are going here or there ... because poverty is very expensive to the taxpayers. In Canada, the very poor and homeless use the emergency rooms as their primary care, which is very high cost. Many of them lose their health care cards because of moving around a lot, living in the streets, etc. and the emergency is the only place they can get help. Services to the homeless in Toronto cost over $32,000 a year per homeless person. All of this is outside of the cost to the criminal justice system as 1 in 6 poor persons are involved to some extent in petty crimes.

For those who want to cut these people off welfare, do you want to live next door to these people, esp. when they have nothing to eat and can't find a job for whatever reason and are now eyeing your property for money to feed themselves? You say, you will let the police handle it. Fine, but that's more tax dollars ... we will need more police officers to take care of these issues, because we will continue to need police officers to handle other crimes.

Some people say folks should be just taken care of by charity. This will certainly be a hit and miss proposition and not everybody who legitimately needs help can be served by a charity whose funds are usually very constrained. Further, receipt of charitable help as a primary gesture actually reduces the person's self-esteem, motivation and empowerment ... there is lots of research on this. Go to an academic literature website and look up studies on reciprocity. As human beings, we all have a natural need to give as well as receive ... when you are constantly receiving, your health is impacted as well as your ability to do anything for yourself depletes too.

Food banks, soup kitchens, etc. are aplenty in all communities but poverty has not been reduced; in fact, it has gone up. Most poor don't even go to these places, many just don't eat. The impact on our health care system (even in the U.S.) is tangible. Also, most food in food banks is not nutritious and in fact, promote obesity and malnutrition.

Answer 7

Living wage, welfare reform, government-sponsored childcare, more college grants for the underpriveledged, and, above all, higher taxes on the rich, the funds from which could then be used to pay for government-run programs that aid those currently in poverty.

Also, it would be nice if the U.S. would start acknowledging the real number of people in this country who don't make enough money to live on. Their undercutting of the numbers so severely makes it seem like less of a problem than it is, which isn't helping the situation.

Lastly, we have to stop corporations from taking the jobs overseas. It's cheaper that way for them, but it costs Americans.

Answer 8

Instead of keeping the welfare system the way it is, offer more help in areas of college education and job training.

If we decrease the monies of passing out food stamps and money, and took that money and placed it in areas that would help people get a good education, then the poverty in this country will eventually be decreased substantially.

Answer 9

1. Stop foreign aid.
2. Stop welfare.
3. Seal the borders.
4. Improve education.

.

Answer 10

To stop spending all the taxpayers money on a losing war, to give the people good Ins. Stop giving ll the rich Republicans all these tax breaks, sign to increase the minimum wage, cut our college rates in half and to stop sending his wife on trips to Paris for literacy when she could look at her husband and learn all she needs to know. Stop flying all the Governments planes all over for no reason at all other than to spend millions of tax payers money on fuel just to ride to see Mommy and Poppy. Just get rid of Bush and that would help find the missing billions that got lost.

Answer 11

I think we need a WPA program. Anyone who needs work can go and get signed up to something. Probably low end work but it pays.

Or, if not cash, then a place to live and food, with some money put in a checking account.