Jul 12, 2011

A Change in Direction


Social Engineering: What is the explanation for, and the solution to the current on steroids supply-side poverty policy paradigm in America - seeing how it has failed to produce the desired yield and ROI for its investors, the American people. Frankly, and in deference to all of the planning, resource allocation, capital utilization and sweat equity that has been applied (the results have been disheartening, with regard to the issue of homelessness)!

Could the answer be, that an antipodal, non supply-side empowerment paradigm, that permits equal access, by all Americans (even the ones who lack capital and fixed assets), to the opportunity structures of this nation, should replace the one that is currently in place? Hegel comes to mind, i.e., "Man's inhumanity to man is based on the ownership of property, and the pursuit of power through class struggle".

At HOP, the outdoor citizen's think tank and coalition of Santa Clara County, we will attempt to answer the question, and fight to change the current dynamic.

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First of all, in terms of a cost benefit analysis, have the trillions of dollars that have been spent already, by concerned taxpayers, faith-based organizations, government and charities yielded an appropriate return-on investment, ROI? The prevailing wisdom would seem to suggest that the appropriate ROI, has not and is not being derived for every dollar that has been and is still being spent to address the phenomenological American-homeless, social pandemic.

Instead of a decrease or improvement, there has been a substantial expansion of the outdoor citizens demographic, here and elsewhere, among the well-fed clothed, temporarily sheltered ... attendant outdoor citizen's demographic. If the overall objective is to keep the outdoor citizens where they are, seeking handouts, then the plan in place is working.

Westerners may 'put their money where there mouths are' when it comes to confronting social issues and war, (behavior that is often a substitute for direct involvement), however, can or will money alone, "answer all things", in this context?

The phrase, "Money answers all things", ironically, is taken directly from the Christian Canon, Ecclesiastes 10:19. Even though most westerners are not aware that this scripture exists, too many Americans, including religious organizations, often practice 'money as a solution problem solving techniques' - churches all too often practice it!

The author, apparently King Solomon (we are not related), may have been correct, whatever his pretext may have been at the time. However, we believe that out of context, the author was wrong. In fact, money does not answer all things. Human and other social problems, require more than money to deal them. For example, if your infant child were crying, would a five-dollar bill placed into tiny hands, appease him or her?

Or, might a gentle touch, a bottle, pacifier, love or touch, satisfy the infants longing or hunger? Other means or methods need to be employed besides money, to answer some things, including what is already in place, to address, not confront, the byproduct of other issues, that results in one ending up homeless in a rich western nation.

The failure to attenuate the root causes, has resulted in a larger problem, that has resulted in too many individuals and families, in a land of plenty, falling outside of, a non-existent safety net, but rather an inclusion net, in the expansive American 2-classes system.

The author of the book: The Greening of America, Charles A. Reich, recognized and wrote about the insidious nature of this phenomenon, just over 4 decades ago. And what should we conclude and interpolate, with respect to this 'living beside the housed', growing phenomenon 40 years later - and the dollars being misspent to address it.

Americans have historically attempted to address the issue of homelessness, in a similar manner that America has often addressed other issues, that has often resulted in America's engagement in war, with so many other nation's of the world. One has to wonder just just long will it take before F14, F16, F18s, drones and satellite surveillance, appear over the growing number of homeless camps, that are popping up, many of them ironically being populated with American war veterans, all over America.

It would be interesting to see if we could, what America's domestic policy for homeless Americans happens to be. Sooner or later, we all know what 's coming, Project Apache for outdoor citizens, perhaps? Sooner or later, someone will recognize, besides HOP and few other individuals and organization, that the expenditure of dollars alone, as opposed to to addressing the the insidious root causes of homelessness as a condition, will have to be addressed prior to sending in the Marines to "get her done".

We have thrown money at this expanding problem, to the tune of trillions of dollars being spent, without achieving the desired result.

Could the money have been better spent, and can the dollars being thrown at the problem, be better spent today? At HOP, we believe that it will take more than money to address not only the issue, but the root causes that result in too many individuals who choose not to do so, ending up living a homeless, not just out of doors, lifestyle!

Part 2

When I, and a group of outdoor citizens came together to form a badly needed self-help empowerment organization 2 years ago, among the yet to be named 'outdoor citizen's demographic', we did so with this idea in mind: We recognized that an army of helping organizations and individuals were already in place in the Santa Clara Valley that were in need of conversion. We also recognized that an incredible amount of resources were apparently being misspent to address the problem of homelessness.

We immediately recognized, that although dollars were changing hands that were to be used to address the problem, that not much had changed for the targeted group of outdoor citizens. In fact, the majority in the outdoor citizen's demographic,were still living in cars, camps, parks, ravines, backyards, garages, foyers, floors, standing in food and feeding lines, or riding buses and the lite-rail into the wee hours of the morning.

In the land of plenty, there have been an abundant amount of resources, financial and other, spread around; who can deny that? However, given the current state of America's, and the worldwide economy for that matter, in the final analysis, those scarce resources have begun to slowly dry up, and in some instances, and in some instances have ended up in the pockets of the few, at the top.

Where there used to be a flood of available resources being spread around, today the Ronald W. Reagan styled trickle down system- dynamic, is firmly in place – something that the misguided late President, worked hard to achieve for his favored class group.

It kind of reminds me of what the Prophet Elijah experienced, when the brook at Kidron begin to produce a trickle, and subsequently dried up, read the old testament scriptures. Can a ocean, river or stream of dollars ... dry up altogether? The answer is in the question my friends, and most Americans are painfully aware that the stream is no longer trickling in some neighborhoods. Nevertheless, the late President, posthumously, got what he wanted, a massive transfer of income for his favored group of Americans!

At HOP, we are hoping to motivate the 2 interested party groups, both the providers and recipients to change course, rather than adopt or adapt to Ronald Reagan styled trickle-down/voodoo economics, (something that his successors are championing to this day). If we succeed in changing the mind of the misinformed, I can envision living in a time when there will be a policy shift in the massive compensatory bureaucracy, that manages supply side programs. Meager resources that pacify the the under-served, will be replaced with opportunities for the under-served, to become viable self-supporting individuals again.

With respect to the outdoor citizens demographic, the recipients of the dwindling welfare streams, we are hoping that each one of them, will recognize the value-ad, in terms of buying into our proposition. We reject the legacy and the current proponents of the Ronald Reagan voodoo economics paradigm. , And as a result, we are teaching outdoor citizens to begin thinking outside of the customary dependency box.

The policies of the former president, have resulted in what appears to be an expanding and firmly entrenched 2-part, haves and have not system, with subsistence programs for a permanently unemployed and underemployed underclass - and at the same time a boundless, unlimited financial opportunities cache, for a near wealthy, wealthy or uber-wealthy tax-avoidant upper class.

We believe that waiting for the recipients of Ronald Reagan's voodoo economics largess, to alter the course of Ronald Reagan styled trickle down, for veterans and other excluded Americans, is simply a waste of time. Instead, HOP has been aggressively moving in a radically different direction. We have been reaching out to other organizations, and outdoor citizens, encouraging both groups to change their missions as well as their strategies. We have asked all concerned, on both sides, the would be helpers and those who are need of help, to HOP on board, before it is too late to change course!

The reification of the 2-classes, welfare-state dynamic, that is to continue subsidizing the welfare state and its expanding permanent underclass, is neither the correct response nor the answer to the expanding problem. HOP hopes to pull the rug out from under the harbingers, as well as the protectors and protagonists for the current paradigm. We hope to have them to join with us, and to funnel wasted resources into recovery initiatives, instead of permanent underclass maintenance programs.

The latter will result in dynamic retraining programs being put into place, also to underwrite the new emerging working class of former outdoor citizens ... who will rise from the ashes of despair, and become contributors in the new inclusive American economy, perhaps an economy with a 30 trillion dollar GDP.

The time has come for all reasonable Americans to not only think outside of the box, but to get themselves out of the box, that has been and is being imposed by the privileged in America, once and for all. We need to work on reform, and whatever is done, in the meantime, please government officials: don't send in the Marines. Besides, someday, many of them will likely end up living in civilian homeless camps themselves, when you are done with them!

Solomon

Jul 8, 2011

America: What Does Its Future Hold?

Anarchy or Another American Revolution:

The problem as I see it, with the 235 year old American experiment, is that America and the majority of its people, not all citizens mind you, are being held hostage by a powerful minority elite. This closed and conniving power elite, the tail that is wagging the American dog, is in control of the reigns of power and wealth in this nation.

The former includes America's political systems, the judiciary, the executive branch, the military, the police, the media, America's financial systems, the American capitalist church system, the American people (and a a burgeoning group of undocumented aliens).

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And when you factor in the recent Supreme Court decision that pretty much sanctified the political relationship between the wealthy and corporations, the fate of the average American citizen has been sealed, at least for the time being. What the Supreme Court ruling established was this, that an American corporation has pretty much the same rights that an American citizen has (within the American political process). And, seeing how major corporations in America are owned by the wealthy, well, you do the math.

Is it any wonder then that the majority of Americans are in financial trouble, while members of the minority elite have never fared better, financially and politically. If the majority of America's citizenry continues to accept the current arrangement, and fails to wrest power away from the closed powerful minority elite, the majority will continue to struggle under a venal arrangement that favors the few. The latter is what occurred with America's founders, a legacy that was restored in modern times by late president and reformer, Ronald W. Reagan.

Ronald Reagan. after being elected America's 40th president, immediately began his reign of terror by consolidating military, economic and political power, and concentrating all of it into the hands of a favored few. He also began implementing his redistribution of wealth, scorched earth policies that favored the rich, and began busting and taking away the power of unions. By terminating PATCO employees, and subsequently going after other major unions that fought for working class Americans, (something that the government failed to do under his leadership), a new corporate elite aristocracy was born.

And as a result of weakening the unions, concentrating wealth in the hands of a chosen few and mitigating the power of the people (the proletariat to dissent) an immediate transfer of power and wealth in this nation, from the majority of the American people to his favored power group, white American conservative males, ensued.

Also, as a result of Reagan's institutionalized favoritism towards the wealthy and corporations, coupled with his catastrophic leadership, the reification of a self-centered power elite; in just under 4 decades, the American economic and mercantile system, along with America's citizen-majority teeters on the brink of economic disaster. At the same time, the beneficiaries of Reagan judicial and political reform are enjoying incomprehensible wealth and power, at the expense of the majority. Reagan's policies were halted, for a brief period of time (during the Clinton years), however, President George Bush Jr., followed by President Barack Obama have replaced prosperity for all American's with Reagan's, and the founders doctrine.

And as a result, when you think about the group of Americans who will soon represent America's future, America's children, young adults, adults and a burgeoning group of septu and octogenarians (who will have outlived social security, their savings, 401K plans, Roth IRAs and other investments), they will continue to experience what they are beginning to experience now, living in deep Republican doodoo)!

The remaining citizens of the not to distant future, both young and old, will continue doing what they have begun doing of late, standing in unemployment lines, begging on the streets, going hungry and depending on unemployment, medicare and medicaid. And at the same time, a small group of Americans will be living in the lap of luxury, and enjoying the kind of uncommon wealth that was realized by America's founding class. Is it any wonder that the members of this group and their descendants, have hated any policy that even hints at the fair distribution of America's wealth?

Jealous? No, I am not jealous at all, however, a system designed to reward the few, while a growing majority suffers, is a broken system as far as I am concerned. And these people call themselves Christians. Come to think about it, many of America's founders considered themselves to be Christians too, having escaped from the kind of oppression that they currently practice against others in the United States. And in the words of a former southern executive from Buckhead Georgia, who provided our organization with an executive briefing just over a decade ago,

"THAT DOG DON”T HUNT"!

The continued failure of the American sleeping dog, to wrest power back from a rich and powerful closed group-elite, once and for all, will result in bankruptcy for the masses, and instant failure for the majority of America's citizens. And what will have to take place to change this dynamic?

  1. Americans will have to learn and practice a new economic paradigm, and that is to stop believing that America cannot exist without self-serving corporations or by subsidizing them and their condigned power. Corporations will continue to prosper, only as long as the majority provides them with protections under the law, or by purchasing their goods, products and services. Every dollar that you spend with self-serving corporations, represents a vote for corporate supremacy. It is time to revert to mom and pop stores, and cottage industries.

  2. Americans will also have to learn to exist in a reformed society, one in which small businesses provide income-producing opportunities for the average American citizens, and a living wage for all of its participants. There will no longer be a gap between the rich and the poor.

  3. Americans will have to wrest power back from the 3 existing branches of power in Washington DC, and to put teeth into the laws, and power back into the hands of the majority.

If we fail to make these and other changes soon, the space shuttle generation along with the space shuttle program, will also come to an end, only to be replaced by commercial interests of the rich. Or in terms of a phrase, that President George H. Bush Sr. once made famous, the majority of Americans are going to find themselves in "deep doo doo"!

Americans also need forfeit their desire to get rich or die trying, and instead to work to install the kind of commonwealth where all Americans, prosper. The latter will not only dispense with the current gross economic disparities that currently exists between different class groups, but will also result in each individual or family, being empowered in a way to take care of itself, and to eliminate inflation, reduce the crime rate and the number of criminals who participate in the American underworld economy.

Otherwise, if the majority of Americans, continue to sit on their laurels and view American capitalists as heroes, while doing nothing for themselves, it won't be long before America, as we know it, will cease to exist -and we are almost there now.

And what are the chances of change occurring? Actually, the chances are good. Why? Because the group of angry Americans who recognized, during the run-up to the 2008 election, that there was a need for change, are still out there. The only mistake that they, an activist majority made before, was when they selected and elected the wrong candidate, Barack Obama to lead a populist people's revolution.

At the time, an overly confident neophyte, lacked the vision, skills, fortitude, aptitude, courage and conviction, to do what needed to be done at the time - to represent the majority of America's people, and to put the Reagan and founder's genie, back into its bottle. Fortunately, that disparaged group of voting American citizens, that was responsible for electing him in 2008, I believe, have since learned how to amend their ways. That groups is still looking for change, and they won't make the same mistake the next time, let's hope!

All that needs to be done, is to stoke the fire that is still simmering in a wounded and disappointed majority, for with respect to neophyte President Barack Obama, we simply do not not have time to wait for him to come into his own. For similar to Ronald H. Reagan (his hero), George H. Bush Senior and Junior, the Republican presidents that preceded him - the needs of the majority were never his top priority.

Frankly, I am impressed with United States Representative Dennis Kucinich from Cleveland Ohio. I believe that if the majority were to elect him to be the next president of the United States, that we would begin to see abrupt changes in America and abroad, similar to what Secretary of State Hilary Rodham-Clinton proposed, and her husband President Bill Clinton implemented, when she ran for president of the United States.

Congressman Kucinich, would stand up and fight, unflinchingly, for the needs of the majority, and against the vast right-winged conspiracy minority, that is still holding this nation hostage. Keep in mind that Republican Presidents have controlled the American narrative and its military, economic and political power, for the majority of the past 30 years.

Otherwise, if America will keep doing what it has been doing in the past, it will continue getting what it has been getting in the present, disappointment among the majority.

I would love to hear your comments!


Solomon