Chapter I
In the last 40 years life in America has changed dramatically. Our once great institutions have crumbled. The great American dream is slipping away. Violent crime has increased more than 500% since 1960, and illegitimate births increased more than 400 %1. The number of children living in single parent homes has increased 300 %, and the divorce rate has increased 200%2. Crime imposes an enormous range of costs on society, and some studies estimate that the direct cost to victims alone in economic damage, pain and suffering total about $175 billion dollars today 3.
Welfare spending reached an all time high until the reform enacted in 1996 by the republican congress. Since the start of the "war on poverty", federal, state, and local government have spent $5 trillion dollars on welfare assistance for the poor 4. Despite this enormous sum, which approximates the national debt, the poverty rate is about the same today at 14.5% as it was in 1966 when it was 14.7% when the records on the "war on poverty" began. The welfare system has failed because of its perverse incentives, by providing substantial subsidies to those who are not working, and by not withdrawing those subsidies when households try to leave welfare and earn their own incomes. Thus, it discourages work by providing substantial subsidies to single mothers with children. It also discourages marriage and encourages illegitimacy. The key to reform is to reverse these incentives by providing essential assistance in a way that promotes rather than discourages work and stable families. It is encouraging to note that the welfare reform enacted in 1996 has ridden some of the perverse incentives which led savings and surplus. At present, America is suffering, owing to the wrong policies of the "Great Society." President Lyndon Johnson introduced this massive social legislative agenda to uplift the poor. He wanted to emulate his idol Franklin Roosevelt and create his own "New Deal." It was natural for President Johnson to think of government as the primary vehicle for dealing with social ills or concerns. He assumed in his limited perspective that government was not only the best vehicle, but also the only one for dealing with social ills that the nation faced. This shows his lack of historical and empirical knowledge of other socialist nations. Most people in India, and other socialist countries, from ignorant to highly educated think the same way. They believe that government must do everything and that the government is the only entity that can solve problems. After 1991, many people in India started to think differently. A deep, impartial and thorough knowledge of history is imperative in all branches of studies, especially social sciences, in order to make a correct diagnosis and solutions. A scholar may gain a lot of knowledge in his field, but if he fails to see the history, his knowledge becomes useless. That is the reason why many economists in India and liberal economists in the USA don't prescribe the correct course of action.
We have learned contemporaneously what history has recorded time and time again; that this perversion of the role of government does indeed inevitably cause more harm than good.
The entertainment industry and major media have made a more significant influence on the family and our culture, than has the church. For the first 350 years of American history, the church had more influence on people, institutions, and families than almost all other agencies put together. Now that role is in the hands of Hollywood and Broadway writers, producers, playwrights, actors, and others who seem not to have any moral values, and are not responsible to anyone but themselves, and their own financial gain. TV's, personal computers and movie films provide the filmmakers with the most powerful mediums that influence the human mind in the history of mankind, because it simultaneously combines the auditory and visual senses to the human brain. The personal computer provides accessibility to practically anybody and at anytime on the earth. The technology of the super-information highway called the "Internet" is revolutionizing the information age.
There are only a small number of people that make up the entertainment industry. However, they have been busy spreading their anti-moral and anti-family values on our nations 270 million people. In fact, this is a very small group of individuals that holds our nation's morals hostage. There are less than a few thousand movie studio owners, producers, television stations and networks, owners, actors and others that oversee and manage this morally uncontrolled industry where the greatest victims are our nation's children. The entertainment industry is the most powerful tool in the battle for our children's mind and souls. Most of the members of this controlling group have adopted the values of socialism. This media source has permitted profanity to gradually eroded decent speech, so that such foul language is the rule rather than the exception today on most TV programs. Most films that have come out of Hollywood in recent years use profanity as though everyone talks that way.
Television has become the most powerful of the media mind molders. Indeed, some would argue that Bill Clinton was the first morally corrupt person to be elected president of this country primarily by the American TV media. The effect of TV on the development of our children's minds is frightening. For example, by the time the average child graduates from elementary school, they will have witnessed at least 8,000 murders and more than 100,000 other acts of violence on the television.5 In fact, it is possible that some children could view more than 200,000 violent acts on television before they become teenagers, depending on the amount of TV viewing, and the nature of the programs that they watch. Producers, of course, deny that they are responsible for the acts of violence committed by viewers. However, evidence shows that in real life many people do imitate what they see.6 There are many copy cat crimes that have occurred throughout America, that have left victims dead or maimed for life.
The rock-music industry is another instrument of Satan to poison the minds of the children of this world. The obscene, immoral and blasphemous lyrics, along with the suggestive and blatant gestures of rock stars, and the perverted lifestyles that they proudly exhibit to the world, have influenced many young people to imitate them. Today, rock stars have become idols and role models for many of our youth.
The main reason that 71% of American married women work outside the home today is the economic situation that has been created by the immoral confiscation of workers income from taxes to finance the destructive socialistic policies of the past 40 years. The average person has to work until May just to pay their taxes.7 Thus, mothers have to leave their children with baby sitters while they go to work. The harm that this has done to the family can not be calculated. In addition to this there is the $5 trillion wasted on the "Great Society" welfare programs that has only made the problem worse. This problem is compounded annually by the 1/3 trillion dollars of interest that is spent on the national debt that has paid for these futile programs.
In spite of this generosity, the percentage of poor Americans has hardly changed since 1965. In contrast, before the 1960's, the poverty level had been declining rapidly. According to government figures, almost 35% of Americans were poor in 1950.8 By 1965 that figure had declined to 14%, which is about where it has remained.
The very nature of poverty has changed during this same interval of time. Prior to the 1960's, most poor Americans were poor because they earned only a subsistence income. After about 1985, there was a sharp increase of ghetto communities in the country.9 Poverty became an increasing problem of a new underclass of able bodied people who rarely were able to work, if at all. Soon it became apparent that many of these people rejected many of the qualities that most Americans admired such as, self control, sobriety, hard work, loyalty, courage, fair play, and a faith in God. The adult men of the underclass rarely stayed at home, and many children were brought up by single women or their female relatives. These mothers are often very young, ignorant, abusive, and irresponsible. The men in their lives are temporary sexual partners or frightening predators. In many cases they abuse, hurt and even murder the children of these young women. Among the black underclass in particular, those that cultivate decent qualities in themselves or their children are sneered at, and are said to be "acting white". According to Charles Murray, the social scientist "the drug dealer is lionized, the man who mops the floor is scorned. The school girl who gets pregnant is envied, the school girl who studies is taunted".10 This type of chiding is especially poignant if the individual is a single male. According to sociologist George Gilder, single men, as a class, are often a threat to society. This is because their sexual aggression is largely unbridled, and potentially destructive. This condition continues, until they accept the responsibility for their families
"Men commit over 90% of major crimes of violence, 100% of rape, 95% of the burglaries. They comprise 94% of our drunken drivers, 70% of suicide, and 91% of offenders against family and children. Single men comprise between 80-90% of most of the categories of social pathology, and on the average they make less money than any other group in the society, even less than single women or working women. As any insurance company actually will tell you, single men are also less responsible about bills, their driving, and other personal conduct. Together, with the disintegration of the family they constitute our leading social problem Women by contrast, are naturally more motivated to achieve long term stability. Their maternal inclinations influence them to desire stable homes, and a steady source of income. They want security for themselves and their children."12
These types of statistics make it more clear why God made marriage an institution. In such a condition, the man no longer uses his energies to pursue his lusts and desires, but instead works hard to build a home, and save for the future, and seek the best job that he can find. In that way his selfish impulses are channeled for productiveness, and his sexual passions are inhibited. In this way the man also discovers a sense of pride because he is needed by his wife and children, and everyone benefits from the relationship. But the absence of strong family brings catastrophe to society. That is precisely what has happened to many inner-city poor families. The government pays the bill, so who needs the man? According to James Dobson, "He procreates and disappears."13 A society that violates God's ordained system will perish.
These rejected virtues enabled earlier immigrants to rise out of the poverty in which they were born. Even today, hard work and self disciplined Koreans and other groups have succeeded in establishing a thriving business in the poorest neighborhoods in America. This has allowed them to follow the path of earlier generations which began with poverty, but then progressed into modest comfort, and then into the middle class. The work experience in low paying jobs is where many Americans have traditionally learned the basic work skills of showing up on time, being pleasant to customers and the boss, and persevering in getting the job done. The underclass regards these jobs as "dead end" and their pay is considered as "chump change". The minimum wage job is not intended for long periods of time. Raising the minimum wage will bankrupt many small businesses. The minimum wage job is only temporary to learn the above mentioned virtues.
Two centuries ago most Americans were desperately poor by today's standards. By the 1960's most people were in the middle class. In contrast, most of the rest of the world remained as poor in the 1960's as they were in 177614. The secret for America's success was very simple, and followed three basic principles. 1.) Establish free markets and opportunity for all who can work. 2.) Provide support in local communities for the deserving poor, such as widows, orphans, and disabled who were unable to work. 3.) Build a life style based upon Judeo-Christian faith, which promoted peace, order, and prosperity.
Material poverty is relatively rare in the U.S. However, behavioral poverty is entrenched and growing. In whole communities, traditional two parent families have vanished, work is rare or non-existent, and multiple generations have grown up dependent on government subsidies. The system offers each individual a "pay check" averaging $8,500 to $15,000, (depending on the state). This is subject to two conditions. First, the woman must not work, and second, she must not marry an employed male. The tragic effect of this ruling is that it has made marriage economically irrational for most of the low-income parents. The Federal Welfare Reform Act of 1988 permits the young father to marry the mother and join the family to receive welfare, but only as long as he does not work. Thus, the current welfare system has conveniently destroyed the family structure especially in the inner city across the entire nation. Instead of lifting the poor out of poverty to self-sufficiency, it traps millions of American families in long term and even intergenerational dependency. Indeed, many homeless people prefer the same life style, and have shunned many assistance programs for accommodations. Even the so-called "hunger" in America is nothing when it is compared to the hunger in Asia and African countries.
In many countries around the world it is possible to see people reduced to a mere skeleton due to hunger and malnutrition. Despite much talk of hunger in America, there is little evidence of it in the U.S. resulting from poverty. The poor consume protein, vitamins and other nutrients at the same average level as persons in the middle and upper class.15 The principle nutrition problems confronting the poor in the U.S. is not hunger, but obesity.16 The poor actually have a higher rate of obesity than those with above poverty incomes.
Psychological and social scientists claim that the death penalty, and harsh punishment, will not deter crime in America. However, an obvious contradiction to that claim can be found simply by comparing the legal system in Saudi Arabia or Singapore with that which is in the U.S. Crime in the former countries is practically non existent. That does not mean that this author advocates the adoption of such a rigorous law enforcement system in this country. It is also interesting to note that even though Saudi Arabian law requires the amputation of hands or feet of a person that has committed a crime, it is extremely difficult to find any people that have severed limbs in that country. The severity of the penalty of the crime has certainly been a significant deterrent to crime in that country. In a similar manner, in Singapore flogging is a common punishment for breaking the law. A young person's life is very safe, secure, and comfortable in this country. Perhaps it is time that flogging should be introduced to youthful offenders of this country. Some people may say that it is a primitive form of punishment. However, people that display a hostile type of behavior must be dealt with by severe punishment, which is the only language that they understand.
Gun control is the only policy that this writer is against in the Republican Party in the U.S. In all other areas this author holds to ultra conservative views. Prior to the 20th century, all the nations in the world practiced violence and brutality. Civility began to grow only after the second World War. This author believes that during the war for American independence, and the civil war that the carrying of guns in this country severed a purpose. However, those needs are no longer valid.
References Cited
1. Cooke, James. Mastering Wealth In A Dangerous World. The Oxford Club, 1994. p. 2
Ibid. p. 2
3. Ibid. p. 2
4. A Pocket Guide To Election Issues. Issue 94. The Heritage Foundation, 1994. p. 54
5. LaHaye, Tim & Beverly. The Spirit Filled Family. 1995, Harvest House Publishers.
6. Ibid. p. 17
7. Ibid. p. 103
8. Murray, Charles. "Magnet: The Dream and The Nightmare." The Tragedy of American Compassion. Marvin Olasky. Washington D.C.: Regnery Publishing Inc., 1992. p. 185
9. Ibid. p. 185
10. Wilson, William, Julius. The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, The Underclass, and Public Policy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987. p. 125
Gilder, George. Sexual Suicide: New York:Quadrangle. The New York Times Book Co., 1973.
p. 7
12. Ibid. p. 7
Dobson, James. Straight Talk. Word Publishing, 1991. p. 33
14. West, Thomas. Moral Ideas for America: "Poverty and Welfare State", California: The
Claremont Institute, 1993. p. 22
15. Source. Washington D.C.: Heritage Foundation, 1994. p. 35
16. Ibid. p. 54