The Bobster's big line for the past couple of weeks is that Bill Clinton has been passing joints out to America's youth. As if this had anything to do with the real problems of our country.
One of the main reasons people don't like government is that folks like the Bobster paint it as an abusive father, beating the children into submission on the "toughlove" model. All this "don't do this, don't do that" crap. No wonder people hate Uncle Sam.
The main societal problem is that the folks in power are self-centered, spoiled bastards. I'm speaking, of course, of the baby boomers, who as a whole are just now contemplating their second childhoods. And they just don't have enough cash to buy that third vacation home, so won't you please cut their taxes? All this tax cut crap (Clinton's homestead capital gains cut included) will only help the rich. Middle class people won't notice much of a difference (if they did, government would go broke) and the poor get screwed once again. I mean, not many poor people make enough money to pay many taxes, and even fewer actually own homes.
Let's not kid ourselves. The homeless, and even folks slaving away at minimum wage are not part of general society. If you're egalitarian to send your kids to public school, you might run into a child or two from a separate social class as you, but after school your children can come home to safety. That's what all those walled communities are for, right?
You can't build a wall big enough to keep the world out. The Chinese tried, but the British just sailed right through the unprotected flank. Alright, so a thousand years passed. The point remains. And the same kind of silliness goes on here. Why do so many inner city kids sell drugs? There aren't any other jobs. Just last month the Popeye's on the south side of St. Pete (whose citizens superficially resemble those of Chicago's south side) closed. About 20 jobs for teenagers eliminated. And now what are they going to do?
I've got a few ideas. My solution to a cruddy society. Three prongs: universal health care, universal child care, and college money for everyone. Damned simple, eh? Now just have to figure out how to pay the bills.
First, with universal health care Medicare and Medicaid are eliminated. We would have to levy a tax, but this wouldn't amount to much more (if more at all) than most workers and their employers are already paying for coverage. Few would notice the difference, except that all citizens could go to any hospital and get care. Ask your Canadian friends how nice that feeling is.
The cost of federal child care could be taken out of the current welfare spending. More affluent Americans will want to put their kids in private care, so let them. This program will help poor people. It will give many single mothers the chance to get out of the home and get a job, just like everyone wants them to do.
As for paying for college education, look at it this way: Each cruise missile aimed at Baghdad cost a cool million. The average cost of tuition, room and board at a Florida university is a little over $5,000. At the cost of one cruise missile, we could send 200 kids to college and pay their costs, minus beer money. If we kill one billion-dollar bomber, that's 200,000 kids who get one year of college. That's a little more than attend Florida institutions of higher education each year. And we're one of the big states.
Yeah, the devil is in the details, but those can be worked out. The federal government has given grants to students attending private colleges (even religious ones) since the Pell Grant program began. Folks who are currently working in the health insurance industry would probably have to find new work, either in the governmental institution or elsewhere. And poor kids might actually have a better shot in school if they are able to be supervised by caring individuals (who work for the government) than if they wander home after school to play Nintendo every day.
All of these ideas can work, once we stop demonizing people who may be different than we are. Hell, if we can just get rich white guys to stop whining about their "plight", we'd be halfway there. Yeah, you have to have a little trust in the government, and yeah, you actually have to care about someone other than yourself and your immediate family. Maybe even sacrifice a bit to help out someone you don't even know.
After all, what's so funny about peace, love and understanding?
Jon Worley lives in St. Petersburg, Fla. He recently tried these ideas out on a bunch of rich young Republicans in Rocky River, Ohio, and they all agreed he made a whole lot of sense. Scary, hunh?