Understanding the Issues: Education

[MTK]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

I believe that some people perceive that the "government is not the solution, it's the problem" crowd has an oppressive, people be damned mentality. But, speaking at least for myself, that is not the case. These programs that help "show people the way", are undoubtedly important. But I believe it should be exactly, to show them the way so they can go it alone next time (or sometime in the future). It's akin to the "buy a man a fish, he'll eat for a day, but teach him to fish and he'll eat for life" mantra. I understand though, that for some people they will never be in position to go it alone. But I believe, perhaps naively, those cases are not as frequent nor as numerous as we tend to think.

I totally agree. I'm not saying the gov't needs to "take care" of these people for the rest of their lives, I just think some people need a helping hand at times and should receive the help they need.

The fact is our social services programs stink and they don't address the root problems. But that's a problem with lack of funding and with our society at large that tends to be reactive rather than proactive. Until the root issues are addressed we'll always have these problems, it's just an endless cycle.