Asking the Right Questions

Are you better off than you were four years ago? That is the question Ronald Reagan asked to get elected. It was the wrong question to ask. It implied that it was the government's responsibility to create well being. Reagan was against big government and yet he was asking the public to look to Big Brother to take care of them.

The polls asking about how many of us approve of what the President is doing seem to be along the same lines. The President is not up for re-election. Aren't there better questions to be asked? What are they? What would better focus national attention on issues that we can more directly effect? What questions would help the majority of America's citizens "be the change they would like to see."

1. Am I taking full responsibility to insure my own family's economic, emotional and spiritual well being for today and tomorrow? (Seth)

2. Am I then realizing and acting upon the obligation I have to aggressively encourage others in my community to do the same through example and active civic participation? (Seth)

3. Am I easily persuaded by one strong opinion, eloquently advocated, only to be swayed the other direction when I hear another equally persuasive "expert" voice the counterargument. (Seth)

4. Do I take enough individual responsibility in my examination of an event to see the big picture clearly by gathering the relevant facts available, recognizing historical patterns and applying truths which I hold as absolute before making a judgment? (Seth)

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How to Love the Refugees

I live in a town with a Refugee Center. I have often heard the complaint that we shouldn't take in the world's poor until we have cared for our own. With the latest influx coming at the same time as wide spread unemployment, the cry has been, "They are steeling our jobs!"

Let's review a few facts. First, the only jobs refugees can get pay minimum wage. Second, the US citizens were out of work before the refugees came. Third, and most important, is a recognition of the stark to horrifying conditions these people have lived in for the past twenty years. Our government has just now offered to relieve some of the over-crowding in the camps. Finally, immigrants have a track record of lifting themselves up by the boot straps and making fine contributions to their new countries.

I am not insensitive to the recent rash of layoffs suffered by my neighbors. I'm also not unaware that I may easily be one of them soon. But blaming the wrong source is not helpful.

So what can be done to employ both refugees and the fearful natives? The world didn't all of a sudden run out of work that needed to be done...

1. Make a new path to a college education...one that starts with two years of developing and practicing a technicle skill before college entrance.  This way students could make enough money while in college to pay for their own educations because they would be able to make more than minimum wage.
2. Enroll adult refugees in this same two year program.
3. Teach all entruprenurship and require at least one year of running thier own businesses.
4. Teach non-english speakers our language using "Super Learning" techneques proven to insure mastery in one half the time.
5. Teach our students other language in the same way so that when refugees arive they would have automatic interpreters and advocates.
6. Build education into assembly line jobs.
7. Have state govenments employ the LDS Deseret Industries systems and locate refugees in those states.
8. Invite local businesses to use Google workplace practices with all workers.
9. Perfect the Universal Translator...or have the world get serious about an international language.
10. Teach all children and refugees "what it means to be an American" to foster loyalty to this country.

Crime Theory

Heather Mac Donald wrote a wonderful article in Wall Street Journal titled A Crime Theory Demolished. Her position is that law enforcement brings down crime, not social welfare programs. The second, and I believe erroneous idea, comes from a Robin Hood position that poor people need to and should take from the rich, thus the raise in crime. So they think the answer is to make people less poor by the government giving them money so they don't have to steel it. (Another Robin Hood notion only this time Robin is dressed in legislative garb.)

This is a vital argument in light of the problems in Haiti. The rule of law has been almost non-existent there. When the US hit the ground with food and medical help, it was not only the mess made by the earthquake they had to overcome in order to get aid into hungry hands. I heard of a man hitting a woman and steeling the recently received food from her arms. I heard of US forces giving out care packages on a golf course but only allowing women and children in to pick it up knowing they wouldn't receive it otherwise.

How do we help Haiti without first locking up a large portion of it's population? The earthquake exacerbated an already huge problem. But when things are so shaken up, fundamental reform can happen if we are willing to step on the toes of a corrupt and ineffective government. The problem I would like to see solved is "How might we best paralyze a criminal population so Haitians can prosper under the Rule of Law?

1. The LDS church found an interesting solution. They provided safety within the walls and on the grounds of the nine meeting houses in Port-au-Prince.

2. Stick enforcement of NYC's "Brocken Window" policies.

3. Put criminals to work rebuilding the city.

4. Find an carismatic Hatian leader that is honest to the core then protect him/her.

5. Provide safe boarding schools for children until the streets are safer.

6. Encourage a system of US host families for semester abroad elementary students until homes are rebuilt.

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 (See also the #7 solution to the "Haitian Boat Crash" post.)