Political Reform

Black Poverty

How do we combat poverty in the inner cities and black communities?


There are several policies that are making it harder for blacks to succeed.  If we get rid of these long standing policies history shows that black poverty could be largely eliminated within ten years.  

See this video on some of the issues that black reformers have identified.


Here is a summary of the racist policies in our country.

1) a law passed in the 1930's by segregationists for the purpose of preventing blacks from getting a job.

2) a law passed right after the civil war for the purpose of increasing murder rates against blacks

3) a policy in our public schools that forces 1 in 3 blacks to drop out, and many others into low paying majors.

4) our k-12 education is basically segregated and poor blacks get a far inferior education

5) there are policies in how we regulate welfare that penalize families for staying together or for trying to get a job


Bonus 6)  Excessive immigration of low skilled workers harms blacks by making it more difficult to get an entry level job.  This isn't a racist policy, but it does hurt blacks.  


1)  In the 1930's segregationists and unions devised a plan to prevent blacks from getting jobs.  Blacks at the time were heavily involved in the construction industry because it was an industry where on the job training was common.  Blacks would offer their labor at lower rates to the employer in order to incentivise the employer to train them in a skilled trade related to construction.  If the employer hires a poor and unskilled black man, and then trains him as a framer or mason he eventually gets a skilled tradesman at significantly lower cost then hiring someone who is already skilled.  The racists and unions wished to prevent blacks from having this opportunity so they got a law passed called the davis bacon act.  Today we call this the minimum wage.  The Minimum Wage makes it harder for blacks to get jobs.  Since the minimum wage was originally a racist law proposed by unions and segregationists to keep blacks out of the job market it should be obvious that this law hurts blacks a lot more than it hurts anyone else.  Nebel prize winning economist Milton Freedman called the minimum wage one of the most anti black laws on the books.  The black economist Thomas Sowell wrote an article on why racists love the minimum wage.  See a full discussion including links to the articles here


2)


Immigration and Amnesty hurt blacks in the inner city by taking what few jobs there are, and giving them to immigrants instead of poor black families.  One of the reasons to control the number of immigrants is to protect poor Americans.  Our current policy of letting anyone cross the border who wants to, and then never deporting them is hurting poor black families by taking away the only jobs available to them.


Refusing to allow school choice through a voucher program hurts the poor much more than it hurts anyone else.  The rich can go to private schools by just spending enough money.  That option is not available to the poor.  Therefore not allowing a voucher program leaves blacks in poor neighborhoods no choice in what school to go to.  The schools in these neighborhoods are some of the worst in the country.  Not having access to good schools forever dooms many black kids to life as a second class citizen.  They will have a hard time getting jobs or getting into any college because their schools were unable to prepare them as well as all the other students they are competing against.