How to Stop "Punishing the Poor"

"Let's stop punishing the poor", declares the latest edition of Random Lengths New.

Who would resist this call? Poverty is a curse, yet the causes remain all too elusive.

To blame Republicans and corporations alone will not end poverty. Liberals, for example, argue for a higher minimum wage because many fast-food and entry-level employees live off food stamps just to survive from month to month. This argument justifies ending the supplemental nutrition assistance program. Besides, well-bodies men and women are taking food stamps even as the economy improves (however slightly).

The better question remains: How best to end poverty?

Progressives argue that more government spending, greater redistribution of wealth, and a concentrated power structure of the few intelligent elites looking out for the best interests of everyone else will transform the growing masses of poor and struggling into health and wealth.

Here are the reforms which will impoverish poverty in our country:

1.Expand school choice for all Americans. The greatest asset for upward mobility in a free society is a free education which our youth can freely choose: free from the recriminations of employee unions, unshackled form the demands of educational bureaucracies

2. Enact Wisconsin's reforms of public sector unions' collective bargaining privileges. Every employee has a right to representation, but the power and influence of public sector unions in the state of California have bankrupted the state, forcing today's legislators to borrow from tomorrow's children to pay yesterday's workers.

3. Remove restrictions on fracking and oil-drilling. Energy prices are outrageously high in this country, and specifically in the state of California. Why should working-class Americans have to pay so heavy a price to drive to and from work? The Board of Equalization just raised the gas tax. How is this equity for all Californians?

4. Promote a flat sales tax in place of the state income tax. No one should be punished for making money. Small businesses create most of the jobs in our country, yet rising income tax rates, along with regulations which enrich government workers at the expense of the companies, are hurting profits and preventing meaningful job creation.

The standard for ending poverty must be more than getting people off of welfare, but making sure that they can pursue happiness, with respect to their life and liberty. Equality of opportunity, not results, must be the standard for ending poverty in our country, and in our state.