Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Poverty & "their" solutions

Tim Worstall at TCS Daily uses two mortal weapons against John Edwards and his approach to fighting poverty: facts, and his own words (against the backdrop of government process):
"Sen. Edwards' is suggesting billions upon billions of spending which will not, by the very measures he uses, have any effect at all on the number of people in poverty in the USA."
The number of people in poverty - 37 million - is accurate. How that number is measured is in question [government process].

Read the article and you will learn what Sen Edwards proposes to do about it and why the proposals will have zero effect on poverty levels. As Worstall states further:
"Come to think of it, this is actually pretty good politics isn't it? Advocating policies which you know will have no effect whatsoever on the problem being discussed so that you can simply call for more of the same next year? At least I hope that's what the Senator is doing. I really would be far more worried if he was simply ignorant of that fact. He did nearly get to be Vice President after all."

Politics versus results (unless those results are election wins, which is again, politics!) And still later:
"There was an important and wise man a couple of millennia ago who point out that the poor, you will always have them with you. Well, if you're going to state that there are 37 million people below the poverty line and then not add in all the things you're doing to stop them being poor this is pretty much a no brainer, isn't it?"
Do politicians looking for your vote really want to solve the problem, or always have a reason to ask for your vote?

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