The War on Poverty

http://www.masslive.com/springfield/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1219821357196710.xml&coll=1


I read the article above this morning. Look at the comments so far (from the forum):

"Lots of these people get cash money in the underground economy. Only ONE big screen plasma. I feels so sorry. Food stamps, free housing. Free education.
What a crock, so that the service providers can feed their own jobs. Gotta look for all the allegedly poor that they can."

"We need to spend more U.S. taxpayers' money on Iraqis and Iraq! Now, that is a welfare program I can get behind."

"The socialists take the bottom 20% and call them poor. Problem is there will always be a bottom 20%."

and its still pretty early in the morning. In those 3 comments, we can see blasts about welfare, the poor, the homeless, the Iraq War and socialism. The first two comments are usual for the website. Any racist, sexist or ignorant comment will be posted on Masslive and I get it; appeal to your base. However, the last comment is very interesting and i want to talk about it for a few lines.

In the 1960's, the president of the United States of Socialism, eerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, America, Lyndon B. Johnson passed legislation to start the War on Poverty. Who would ever think the president would care about the "bottom 20%"? I mean, they are poor and of course its the poor person's fault that s/he is poor. All W.A.S.P'S (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants) have pulled themselves up from their bootstraps and made their way own in this country. Its funny though, all non-white people in this country weren't originally from here. Some were actual involuntarily transported here and others chose to come here. And lo and behold, some of these same non-white people are still poor. It has to be a coincidence though.

Another point about that third comment is capitalism will always have that "bottom 20%". You don't have to be a socialist or communist to realize this. All that is needed is some knowledge of what capitalism is/was (I use "was" because some theorists and economists believe that we are in a post-capitalist state). The "free" markets and other capitalistic principles make it easy to decipher that only certain people can succeed in a capitalistic society. You don't have to be a student of Karl Marx or even like him to understand that there is a genuine and expanding gap between the bourgeoisie and the proletarians. For example, EXXON MOBIL CEO's make millions and Mobil gas station workers across the country make minimum wage, which varies from state to state. It's capitalism at its best and worst.

Now, its been 44 years since the War on Poverty began and 7 white presidents have sat in the Master's, eerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, White House and the same people are still poor. Coincidence?