I've long debated addressing the matter of social welfare in the United States. Well, Senator Joe Manchin's NO to the White House about the Build Back Better Act could well be a wake up call for the nation.
First, Manchin left the door wide open for some compromise next month. He blamed the White House staff and not the President. So something less than $2 trillion will get through by reconciliation.
But the larger point that I'll address today is: can we build a society to motivate people? We need to get to the root cause of what ails America. Homelessness, poverty, racial strife...things seem to be getting worse rather than better.
Starting with homelessness, here are some numbers that will surprise, if not shock, you. In terms of homeless/100,000 population:
- Syria 3753
- Nigeria 1658
- Somalia 1867
- Central African Republic 1421
- South Sudan 1378
- Grenada 1300
- Yemen 1294
- Honduras 1235
- Egypt 1200
- Colombia 971
- Germany 82
- UK 57
- France 45
- Sweden 36
- South Africa 36
- Mexico 35
- Haiti 34
- Israel 29
- China 18
- USA 17.7
- Brazil 10
- Canada 10
- Turkey 8.5
- Italy 8.4
- Norway 7
- Romania 7
- Russia 4
- Portugal 3
- Hong Kong 2.4
- South Korea 2
- Iran 1.9
- Thiland 0.4
- Japan 0.3
- Jordan 0
- Liechtenstein 0
- Bhutan 0
- Cuba 0
I won't pick on Syria since it's been at war for a long time.
- However, the homeless problem of Nigeria is 100 time worse than the U.S.
- The UK has four times the homelessness of the USA.
- Sweden, South Africa and Mexico have twice the homelessness of the U.S.
- Turkey, Italy, Norway and Romani have half the problem of the U.S.
- Russia less than a fourth.
- Iran is one-ninth that of the U.S.
- Japan is 1/50 that of the U.S.
Compared to the rest of the world, homelessness is a misfortunate, but not really a problem here. Five years ago the Star-Advertiser said homelessness was Hawaii's worse problem. Government has tried, but I don't think it's any better today. In that posting I quoted how Honolulu can eliminate this problem, and you can read that statement here, from my SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity.
All the rest of our social welfare problems are linked to poverty, policy and attitudes. Slavery in the country ended after the Civil War. A century and a half later not much has really changed. Almost three-quarters of Americans are White. Yet, 71% of children in poverty are colored.
That Build Back Better Act is loaded with "progressive" programs that perpetuate our social welfare problem. Our tax monies go to reducing motivation to do better. This of course is a long-term matter, but it has been 150 years since slavery theoretically was banned. We need to do something more effective about education, and bringing back a modern version of the nuclear family. Criminals and those on drugs rarely come from stable families.
While education gets something, if not a lot, the people problem is not addressed in Build Back Better. We mostly take money from the more affluent to only give to the less. Attached to these funds should be some compelling motivational requirement. What and how? I'm not an expert in this field, but we need to break out of our current sense of liberal Democratic attitudes to something more productive.
- #1 Norway
- #2 Denmark
- #3 Finland
- #4 New Zealand
- #5 Sweden
- #6 Switzerland
- #7 Canada
- #8 Australia
- #9 Iceland
- #10 Netherlands
- #13 Japan
- #17 South Korea
- #20 UK
- #28 U.S
- #29 Singapore
- #33 Israel
- #46 Kuwait
- #61 Brazil
- #69 Russia
- #79 Thailand
- #88 Vietnam
- #100 China
- #101 Saudi Arabia
- #112 Egypt
- #117 India
- #139 North Korea
- #163 South Sudan
- #1 France 31.2
- #2 Belgium 28.9
- #3 Finland 28.7
- #4 Italy 28.2
- #5 Denmark 28.0
- #6 Austria 26.6
- #7 Sweden 26.1
- #8 Germany 25.1
- #9 Norway 250
- #10 Spain 23.7
- #14 Japan 21.9
- #17 UK 20.6
- #21 USA 18.7
- #24 Canada 17.3
- #29 Israel 16.0
- #30 Switzerland 16.0
- #34 South Korea 11.1
Note that South Korea spends only at an 11.1% rate and ranks #17 in the social progress index, compared to the USA at 18.7% to rank #28. Switzerland is at a 16% rate, but ranks #6 in in that social progress rank. So are we doing something wrong with what we devote to social welfare? I think that motivation factor needs to be key. It is clear, though, that what works in those countries has a lot to do with the ethnic mix of any society and type of government. South Korea is 95% Korean, while Switzerland is 95% White. Note that the top ten countries on the social progress index are essentially Caucasian, and strong democracies.
You can form your own opinion of why we have some social welfare problems. It's pretty obvious to me. So what can be our solution? Donald Trump actually made an attempt. We are the United States of America, while beginning to lose our grip on greatness, still the strongest and best country in the history of humanity, and while we are currently challenged, we need to find a better way. But we need to reach a collective state of mind as shown below.
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