Reply #30: I agree with about 80 percent of what you say.

[American Minority]

Let's get the disagreement part out of the way first. I'm sorry; I can't be responsible for things that happened way before I was born. I work hard just to support my own living family. I am far more interested in creating an America where my grandchildren can achieve and have a happy, successful life. Besides those wronged individuals are all long dead. As for existing generations, they all have the same opportunities I had to work my way through school start a career and be successful.

Now for the agreement part; I know that it's a mis-characterization to label all conservatives as uncaring for the plight of the HARD WORKING American. I strongly agree that we should strive to find some way to ensure that citizens who are willing to put in the effort are paid a decent wage that can support their families in a reasonable fashion. I think a hard working family of four earning $25,000 per year is a shame.

The problem lies in how we are attempting to raise the standard of living for the lower income population. There are no incentives in place to accomplish this. As a matter of fact, the system abounds in disincentives. Want more money from our government? Have more children. Don’t see to it that they shun crime and get a good education. They won’t seek a good job as adults so they too must have more children and live on the state. There are families that never consider work as a way of life for generations – it’s just not expected. Our government enables this kind of behavior.

On the other side of the equation an ever increasing progressive income tax dissuades some high income people from continuing to put in so much effort just to have it taken away. I personally have reduced my work and income by 75 percent last year – it’s just not worth it. Don’t forget, it’s mostly these people who are creating the jobs and opportunities for the rest.

So projecting these trends -- people who have figured out a way to live off the system having the highest birth rate and the people who are funding the government becoming more and more dissuaded from achieving; and the future does not look good. Huge deficit spending is not the answer. That tactic may get votes but does not bode well for the future.

I honestly don’t have all of the answers for how we can create the proper incentives. Tying education and job training to government handouts would be a good start. The government is the countries’ largest employer. Let’s spend this money to get people trained and working in these jobs. How about employing them in the badly needed rebuild of our nation’s infrastructure? You get a government contract; you are required to hire X percent from the government trained work pool.

Another solution I would support is to substantially increase the minimum wage to a livable level. This would incentivize people to work as opposed to taking a handout which is often larger than the existing minimum wage. The downside I see to this approach is that since the cost of most goods and services would go up to pay for this it could be considered a flat or even regressive tax. But at least the money would be going directly to the ones working for it and not to the government which is notoriously inefficient and liable to use it for political gains. The other problem is it would make us less competitive in the global labor market. If we could solve that problem, I would certainly support this move.

Sorry for the long winded response but I am enjoying this discussion and appreciate your input.