Getting to the Roots
Our nation needs new voices. The Republicans (conservatives) believe poverty can be overcome with better life choices, such as taking personal responsibility for being poor and creating better opportunities, so people do not have to depend on government assistance. Democrats believe that casting a wide safety net through government programs is the best way to address poverty. Neither of them get to the root of the problem.
Programs do not provide jobs, education, and housing. Those three things are the most critical safety nets. Each political cycle brings about changes that affect the future, but politicians aim to demonstrate an immediate impact.
I am currently reading “The Gods of New York” (a fantastic book) that chronicles NYC from the early 1980s, a period Fred and I lived through, which altered the landscape, bringing people and money back to the city while shaping it into the place it is today. Many of the decisions led to the destruction of housing, soaring crime rates, and numerous scandals. The early decisions might have brought capital into the city through tax benefits but in the long run it did not do anything to prop up the middle class or even get to the roots of why the scourge of drugs and crime prevailed. You have to fix the issues at the roots in order to truly make impact and our government is terrible at it.
Countless gems can describe what is happening today, such as a piece from Murray Kempton at Newsday, who wrote, “the robber barons sacked the earth and flayed the toilers, but they left the mines and mills and railroads behind them. Their greed was the terrible engine of progress. Our is only the bedizened fellow traveler of decay”.
Trump’s rise happened during this time, and he was always a disgusting grifter who lied and never did what he said he would, such as building public housing when buying public land. He never cared about anything but himself. If we weren’t living through his horrific leadership today, I would be aghast; instead, I am numb to the fact that with all his bullshit, people still voted for him.
It is time for new, it is time for data to show how to change the US moving forward, how the government needs authentic leadership to get rid of guns, and the money behind politics, and to understand why people go off the rails, creating safety nets as they do in Europe.
My other favorite, line in the book, is “private equity is a terrible cancer, it always wins in the end”. As always, cycles occur; we have all witnessed this with private equity and other developments in our communities today. It is only understanding what is needed for more people to break out of poverty, which is jobs, healthcare, and housing. If we can’t fix that, we will continue to see history repeat itself, as it appears to from that time in the 80s.