Our Underclass–The Bottom Feeders
Just
recently, I wrote to you about the “Bottom Feeders and the Top Feeders”. Today,
I would like to discuss, in more depth, the “Bottom Feeders”, those of our
people who get the real “dribble down” part of our nation’s income and
wealth–our “underclass”. They are ever expanding as our rich get richer and our
poor get poorer. Jesus told us the poor will always be with us. We know we
cannot eliminate poverty completely; but we can and should do our utmost to
reduce it.
Who is this underclass? I envision five types of people. There are: (1)
those who are completely disabled and cannot support themselves– they were
either born as such or were injured at some point in their life, (2) those who
are partially disabled but can and are willing to perform work of some kind or
another, (3) those who have a job but don’t earn enough to keep their “heads
above water” (Their jobs may be either full time or part time; and their wages
are too low to sustain them at a livable standard of living), (4) those who really
want to work but cannot find a job, and (5) two sub-types, those who are able
but unwilling to work, and those who are
unacceptable to the workplace because of their lifestyle and/or personal
persona. They will always rationalize their condition; but, in the end, those
in this group are unproductive and contribute little, if any, to society. They
are a real and ever growing problem for our nation. They are “takers”.
In
the case of the first group, the truly disabled, we should provide help collectively
as a nation sufficient to humanely satisfy their needs for a reasonable
standard of living. In my mind, there should be no argument for even a second
about that. It is a question of moral values for they cannot help themselves. For
the second group, we should help them find work commensurate with their
abilities and subsidize their employment to the same level as the first group. That,
too, is a matter of one’s moral values. For the third group, we should
essentially do the same; but they should be motivated to upgrade themselves
though education, skill enhancement, and job search to help them become productive,
self-sustaining, members of society and rise to the middle class. For the
fourth group, those who want to work but cannot find jobs, we should help them
help themselves, also. We should provide unemployment compensation during their
period of job search, and they should help themselves by skill enhancement
(personal as well as professional) and education. In too many cases, a change
in mind-set will be imperative, too. Times have changed. They have changed and we
have not kept abreast. This is just my personal observation and opinion, but I
believe massive change, social as well as technological, grew its own bubble
over the years, one which burst alongside the housing bubble, the financial
bubble, the debt bubble, etc. There was the seen change we recognized and the
unseen change within the bubble we failed to recognize until it “popped out”– the
problem of “the less productive and unwanted
employee” (not to be confused with those in the fifth group). But I digress.
Our
objective must be, to the fullest extent possible, to eliminate our nation’s “underclass”
by enabling those within to rise to the “middleclass”, a must for the overall
good of our nation. This leads me to the next issue, the fifth group, those who
are unproductive, the “bottom feeder” parasites (as opposed to the “top feeder”
parasites discussed in a prior posting to this blog)–those who are able but
unwilling to work and be a contributing member of our society and those who are
unacceptable to the workplace because of their lifestyle and/or personal
persona. This is the hard part of this discussion–the really hard part. It is a
cancer in our midst.
I
think most of us understand that we are raised within the same culture,
lifestyle, attitudes, and standard of living as our parents; and, in general,
we inherit that from them–usually along with their worldview. People reared in single
family and/or undisciplined households, irresponsible, doing as they please,
skipping and dropping out of school, running in gangs, committing crime, doing
drugs, conceiving children out of wedlock, etc., can never rise out of poverty
and be responsible and contributing members of society–NEVER! They will only
perpetuate their unfortunate condition or culture through their offspring,
forever remaining an ever growing burden. Exceptions to this are rare–very rare.
In the end, people in this class will never rise to the middleclass until they change
or overcome their culture. There lifestyle itself will preclude such and only
help to bar them.
I
am not a sociologist, and what I’m going to say scares me, but I submit to you
that only two avenues of pursuit can resolve this problem and both are imperative.
One is the need to change the type of nurture in the home of these people and
the other is education, both of which must begin in very early childhood, as
near birth as feasible when learning is at its peak. The trained sociologists
can develop the details–the “how to’s”, if you will, but it must be done. Achievement
of this objective will be highly argumentative, politically disquieting, and
expensive; but, is the alternative affordable either? Our prisons are already
full and we certainly cannot do what the British did in the eighteenth century,
send them to Australia.
This condition must be remedied for the good of all,
including those involved. Even our most wealthy have only so much money.
Ronald Miller
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