Obama says, "I'm in this race for the same reason that I fought for jobs for the jobless and hope for the hopeless on the streets of Chicago; for the same reason I fought for justice and equality as a civil rights lawyer; for the same reason that I fought for Illinois families for over a decade. That's why I'm running...to keep the American Dream alive for those who still hunger for opportunity, who still thirst for equality."
What about keeping the American Dream alive for the majority of Americans who find it more and more difficult to make ends meet because the federal government is either overtaxing them or over-regulating them for the benefit of the minority. Obama wants to fight for the rights of the minority at the expense of the majority. Politicians seek to gain power by taking up causes such as the children or the poor. I have travelled to Peru and have seen real poverty first hand. These people lived in the desert with nothing more than 4 walls around them. The United States does not have poverty like this, so what exactly does Barack Obama want to fight? The United States has an abundance of wealth and opportunity. Generally, failure to make good choices or to seize readily available opportunities is the primary reason for someone not experiencing some sort of success here. The poor receive medical care and food. The poor do not starve to death in America. They die from neglect, many times at their own hands, but they do not die from lack of food.
Obama says that he is running to keep the dream alive for "those who still hunger for opportunity, who still thirst for equality." Why does he have to keep that dream alive? There is opportunity all around America. We don't need the government to keep that alive. If anything, more government means less opportunity because more money and resources are being taken up by the government. More government means less freedom. Less freedom means less creativity and innovation. Less creativity and innovation means less opportunity. Less opportunity means that it becomes more and more difficult for people to climb from the bottom rung of the economic ladder to the top. Obama's plan of more government will actually serve two purposes. It will protect the wealthy even more and it will bring less opportunity and prosperity to America. Socialists have always promised equality and opportunity, but have never delivered. What happens is that most people become equally poor, while the leaders and the ruling elite enjoy the majority of the wealth and privilege. It is nothing more than the old lords and barons system of England during the Revolutionary days. The people work to support the government, while the government employees enjoy the labors and work of the masses.
You would think, after reading Barack's plan for the poor that poor people wouldn't know what to do without the government providing them access to jobs, training, transportation, etc. In a nutshell, Obama's plan says that the reason the poor are poor is because the number of poor are rising and the minimum wage is too low. For such a complex problem as poverty, Obama has such a simplistic view of poverty. People are poor for a variety of reasons. Some are poor because of poor choices, terrible parents, and a myriad of other reasons. Poverty isn't just about the minimum wage. Raising the minimum wage solves nothing except for raising the cost of goods and services which only put the poor back into the hole which Barack so compassionately tries to raise them out of. I was once poor. It was called being a student.
WHAT OBAMA SAYS: Obama will create an Affordable Housing Trust Fund to develop affordable housing in mixed-income neighborhoods.
WHAT IT MEANS: The surest way to create more affordable housing is to allow people to build housing. There is no need for a fund dedicated to affordable housing. Just let people develop their private land instead of restricting where housing can be built just to appease a few environmental zealots or groups.
WHAT OBAMA SAYS: Obama will invest in rural small businesses and fight to expand high-speed Internet access. He will improve rural schools and attract more doctors to rural areas.
WHAT IT MEANS: Most people live in urban areas. Why should a disproportionate amount of taxpayer dollars be ferried off to under populated rural areas? The only way to do this is by taking money away from the majority of people. Why is it the government's job or prerogative to invest in businesses? Is it the government's role to meddle in these affairs? When Obama says that he will invest in rural businesses, did he mean that he would personally invest? Well, go ahead Mr. Obama, invest to your hearts intent, but please do not spend taxpayer dollars on any of your schemes. Contrary to your socialist beliefs, resources are scarce and limited and every dollar or resource that you misallocate is a resource that could have gone towards a business that produces a good or service that people want, not a good or service that Obama thinks that we want.
Marxists, leftists, and socialists have often used the cause of the poor to rise to power and then have implemented policies that only keep the poor or that repress the very people who brought them to power. Think of Lenin and Russia, Hitler and Germany, Mao and the Chinese, and on and on. Poverty has a myriad of reasons, least of which is the minimum wage. More than likely, much of the supposed poverty that exists in America is created by the socialist policies that reward ineptitude and laziness and punish creativity and hard work. Labor unions and the government work together to restrict access to labor union jobs, thus driving up wages above what would normally exist, and lowering the number of jobs available to people. Minimum wage hikes reduce the amount of jobs available to people who have little or no skill because some labor isn't worth minimum wage. More government will not solve the problem of poverty. It will only accelerate the poverty it assumes to alleviate.