Sharing the Wealth - My Way

Share the wealth. This is what Obama wants to incorporate into every aspect of America, starting with health care. If the poor can’t afford health care then make the wealthy pay for it. If you take this statement at face value it is not an outrageous suggestion. Someone who can’t afford health care because they have lost their job should be given a helping hand until he can get back on his feet again. The same is true for the elderly, no matter how much a senior has saved he would be wiped out with one major surgery. So we need to help our elderly. Besides, isn’t that what tithing is all about? Giving money which will then be used to help the poor among us?

Helping the less fortunate is at the core of every civilized nation and every modern religion. The problem, however, is that we have become too large and have lost the community feeling whereby neighbor helped neighbor and so the government must step in. Government is always unwieldy and it doesn’t help that we have a growing population of people who choose to be poor and demand government help. Combined these two problems are emptying our treasury and dividing our country.

I’ve counted five different groups of these poor people who are draining our national wealth. First there are the men and women who refuse to get a job, which includes the underqualified and the overqualified. The underqualified includes the large group of people who drop out of school, who can barely read and write, who cannot speak proper English if they speak it at all, who are in gangs or drug dealing and the mentally challenged. The overqualified are formerly employed people who lost their jobs, have not been able to find an equivalent position and prefer to take government assistance rather than take a job that they deem are beneath them.

The third group of poor who are taking advantage of our government handouts are the young, and not so young, women who pop out a kid every year or two. Most of these young women are unmarried and have no means of providing for their children. These women are typically part of the undereducated group and the jobs that they could get pay so little that after providing for day care they wouldn’t be able to pay the rest of their bills. Easier to stay home, have more kids and get more government money.

The final two groups are those who we should be helping; people who are physically or mentally unable to work and the elderly. Ironically many in these groups would like to work, even if for a few hours a week because an extra hundred dollars every month might mean putting the thermostat to a more reasonable level. But the system is set up such that if they work even for a few hours then they might lose all of their government assistance.

What is the solution? Obama wants to spread the wealth but our “poor” are so numerous that paying for the slackards will bankrupt this country. No matter what promises the President makes, he will have to take money not just from the rich but also from the middle class to pay for his health care plan. It’s no surprise that working people are outraged that they will be penalized for working. They will be forced to hand over a bigger and bigger portion of their hard earned money to sluggards who live off of the government dole because they chose not to work. It’s not fair and people are angry.

President Obama, I have a solution to this growing problem and my idea can be summed up in one sentence – With the exception of the ill and elderly, everyone else who takes government money must work. Period. And the details of my plan are equally simple. If after a year of being unemployed a person still hasn’t found a job then they must choose from one of four options; join the military, go to college (must make passing grades), join Americorp or stop taking government money. That’s it. Of course the hope is that eventually they will find a job suitable to their experience but until then they have to pick one of these options.

The key to my proposal is Americorp and something Obama should like – community organizations. I don’t know how either currently operates but I see Americorp setting up in every medium sized community and in every depressed area. Each local Americorp facility would initially set up two businesses; a cafeteria and a day care center. The cafeteria would offer healthy but inexpensive breakfasts and dinners to the poor and their families while the day care center would watch over the children when the poor start working. Of course both of these enterprises would need to hire people thus already creating work for the poor.

Next, my new Americorp would target every farm, factory and other business which hires illegal immigrants. Americorp would now be able to fill these jobs. Some kind of benefits and rewards would be given to both companies who hire Americorp workers and also for the Americorp workers doing this acknowledged hard, manual labor. Thus in one stroke we would deter companies from hiring illegal immigrants while also providing jobs to our own poor.

If an able bodied poor person continuously refuses these job offers then their government handouts will be taken away. It's that cut and dried. Yes I can hear liberals shouting that we would be penalizing the poor children. First, their logic is faulty, it is the lazy parent who is at fault and second, I could see Americorp allowing these families to eat at the cafeteria thereby making sure the children still get healthy meals. And don't even dare try the argument that we would be separating babies from their mothers since this is exactly what working mothers must do every day.

Finally, for the college educated, I would create a fast track to get them teaching at our schools. Now that I think about it, the local Americorp should start a third business; hiring the educated unemployed men and women to act as tutors and mentors for the children of the poor. The ultimate goal is to stop the cycle of poor and the first step is to educate the children. Actually, the educated poor could also mentor and help the undereducated poor adults, too. They could teach these adults not just in school subjects but in everything from cooking healthy to managing a budget to proper etiquette when applying for a job. If there are no other jobs available and yet someone getting unemployment money refuses to take one of these Americorp jobs then they, too, would lose their government handouts. Or they could simply not apply for government money if they know they won't take a government Americorp job.

This leaves just those who truly deserve government assistance; the disabled, the elderly and the mentally ill. If anyone in these three groups is able to work for an hour or two a week then they should be allowed to do this without losing their government benefits. But if they are physically or mentally unable to work then they should receive full government assistance without feeling any shame or guilt. They are the only “poor” who everyone would agree actually deserve help. Everyone else should go to work, go to college, join the military or get off the government dole. I think this is a way to share the wealth that most working people would support. And even Obama should be happy as my plan uses community organizers so that he will have a job waiting for him in two years!