Oh yes, there’s racism in America. Government-supported
teachers unions, for example, care greatly about teachers' pay and the
continued employment of poor teachers. They care far less about the quality of
education, especially for blacks in the central cities. That’s racism.
Minimum wage laws cause unemployment among
those who are not productive enough to merit the required minimum level of pay.
The laws are a key reason why young black males suffer an unemployment rate of approximately
50 percent. It is not racist for an employer
to refuse to hire someone whose hourly value is less than the minimum wage. It’s
the laws themselves that are racist.
Indirectly, the war on drugs is racist. It
causes many potential black entrepreneurs to end up in jail. If children of the
elite were being sent to jail for drug violations in great numbers, the war on drugs
would be terminated in a hurry.
The Federal Reserve Bank helps the rich
and hurts the poor by setting price controls on interest rates. With the rates
low, creditors lend to the rich and big businesses, confident of repayment. But
the creditors hesitate to lend to the poor and small businesses, for fear of
default. Usually the biggest source of new jobs, small businesses are forced to
cut down on hiring.
The price of sugar in the U.S. is almost
60-percent higher than the world price. (Here, the Federal Trade Commission forces
the U.S. price up, not down.) The poor pay more, while relatively few U.S.
sugar producers benefit greatly. The FTC also forces up prices of citrus and
other products.
Unions raise the income of the few union
members, but cause higher prices for everyone else. Without the laws and
regulations that support unions, they would be far less effective in raising
labor costs, and they couldn’t afford large campaign contributions to liberal members
of Congress.
The Davis-Bacon Act, enacted 85 years ago,
artificially inflates the wages of construction works and employs an army of
bureaucrats to enforce its measures. Contractors are required to pay
construction workers “local prevailing wages” on all federally-funded jobs. A
backhoe operator in New York State, including benefits, currently earns $99.39
an hour. The citizens of New York pay high tolls for using such facilities.
Another intent of the David-Bacon Act was to
prevent non-unionized blacks from competing with unionized whites for scarce
jobs during the Depression. Minorities continue to be underrepresented in the
unionized skilled trades. In 2009, the Obama Administration even expanded the
coverage of Davis-Bacon, making construction projects all the more racist and expensive.
Welfare keeps the poor down. Let's say a
person receives welfare of $200 a week. If a person takes a job paying more
than this, the welfare is withdrawn. Say the job pays $300 for a 40-hour week;
the net increase is $100 a week. Dividing $100 by 40 hours means that the
person would actually be working for only $2.50 an hour. He or she chooses to
remain unemployed. Welfare should be terminated. The federal government should
pay all adults a guaranteed income which is not withdrawn when a job is taken.
Prosperous people don't want government’s interference
or its high taxes. But liberals, who want larger and more intrusive government,
prefer that people in the lower classes remain poor and dependent on government
so that they will vote to keep the liberals in office. For years, Democrats and
Republicans who vote with liberals (Republicans-in-Name-Only) have formed a big-government
majority in Congress. They strive to exercise power over others, and they love
controlling all that money.
As government has grown, the gap between
rich and poor has become wider. Rich people and big businesses provide
substantial funds to help reelect legislators, receiving many benefits in
return. This is called crony-capitalism, in which the poor are unable to engage.
For over a decade, the real income of America’s lower economic groups has
remained about level, while the rich have thrived. The liberals say they
want to help the poor but fail to notice that their policies have had the
opposite effect.
The primary source of racism and poverty in
America is big-government liberalism.
A
slightly different version was published by the Concord Monitor in February
2017.
