Top Ten Ways to Help the Black Family in the U.S.
Black families have been deteriorating for decades. You're more likely to be born to a single mother, you're more likely to be arrested, and you're more likely to be in poverty than any other race. Here are some ways to help the black family become more successful in the U.S.Our current welfare system discourages work by stripping one's benefits once they gain employment. Also, it encourages people in poverty to have more children, because their benefits go up the more children that they have. So, how can we fix this?
1: Establish a Universal Basic Income (UBI)
A UBI is an amount of money that is given to everyone living in a country unconditionally. If you have a UBI of 6k, then you give everyone in tour country 6k. Some conservatives support a UBI because it results in less government bureaucracy and interference in people's lives. Also, it encourages work. Instead of your benefits going away, you gain more money the more you work. Some liberals love it because it would ensure that everyone would have a basic standard of living. One con is that this would be pretty expensive, and would require raising taxes.
2: Establish a Guaranteed Minimum Income (GMI)
A GMI is similar to a UBI in which it rewards work. However, not everyone receives money under a GMI. Only the poor do. A GMI acts as a negative income tax. For example, let's say there is a GMI of 24k. If one makes no income, you would divide that number by two, so he would receive 12k. If he makes 12k a year, then you would subtract 12k from 24k, then divide that number by two. He would receive 6k, so that bumps his income up from 12k to 18k. Economist Milton Friedman was a large proponent of this system.
3: Tweak the current system.
If numbers 1 or 2 can't be accomplished, there are some tweaks that can be made to improve our current system. First of all, stop rewarding people on welfare that have children. If one on welfare gets pregnant, they should receive no extra benefits. Also, all fathers of children that are on welfare should be forced to pay child support.
In my opinion, first to improve the education system, we must take little steps. I'm not going to say all black students but we black students need to step up and check ourselves before we improve. We need to stop acting out in class, stop getting suspended too often, develop more conscience to ourselves, stop causing conflict on social media, be more aware and compassionate, stop focusing on the girls and just focus on education. Education matters if you want to be something big in your life. Improve yourself before you improve others and other things. I know some of this from experience of being from a predominately black school with kids who do those things.
The war on drugs was specifically started to arrest blacks. Sadly, that isn't a conspiracy theory. It's actually true. Someone from the Nixon administration who helped start the war stated that the war was started so that blacks that protested the Vietnam could be locked up war. The war on drugs is one of the main reasons that black families are constantly broken up. Drugs should be decriminalized, and non-violent prisoners should be returned to their families.
Hold up. Before you start attacking me, read on. I only support eliminating the minimum wage if one of two things happen. One, we establish a UBI or GMI. Two, we drastically increase workers rights to unionize. The minimum wage hurts the unemployed because it doesn't allow people who has labor worth less than the minimum wage to work. If the minimum wage is $10, but my labor is worth $8, then I can't work, and will be forced on welfare. If we establish a UBI or a GMI, then everyone will have a safety net just in case their job doesn't pay well. If we allow more workers to unionize, they will be empowered to ask for higher wages and more benefits. Look at Sweden. They have no minimum wage, but entry level workers there make much more than they do here. Why is that? Because over 90% of all their workers are in unions. If we eliminate the minimum wage, then unemployed people who had labor worth less than the minimum wage could find work.
This is pretty obvious. Our economy has been growing slowly for more than a decade, and jobs are scarce. How can we improve the economy? Decrease taxes on the middle class, establish infrastructure projects, improve U.S. schools, make college more affordable, etc.
Healthcare is one of the main reasons that people fall into poverty. This is especially true for black families, because private insurance is sometimes completely unaffordable. Medicaid should be expanded on order to ensure that those in poverty receive adequate healthcare that won't drive them into further poverty.
Affirmative action programs allow black students that have lower grades than a college's standards to become eligible for that college. Why should we be pushing the notion that it's okay to be second best? Everyone should be held to the same standards, regardless of race. Instead of having lower expectations for black students, those expectations should be raised, not just for black students, but for everybody. We should propose programs that empower black students, not discourage them.
Regressive taxes, such as sales taxes, hit poor families the hardest. Therefore, they hit the black community the hardest. Sales taxes should be eliminated, or, at the very least, decreased. How would we pay for it? Simple, just end wasteful spending and close tax loopholes.
Unwanted pregnancies can lead to people becoming impoverished. By expanding the access of birth control, less people would be thrown into poverty.
African Americans, on average, are less economically literate than white families. This means that they are more likely to go into debt, invest money in the wrong places, and be the victim of predatory lending practices.