Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!lsuc!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!bellcore!decvax!ittatc!dcdwest!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!hplabs!qantel!lll-lcc!lll-crg!seismo!ll-xn!mit-amt!mit-eddie!mit-vax!slk From: slk@mit-vax.UUCP (Ling Ku) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: Welfare Message-ID: <5@mit-vax.UUCP> Date: Thu, 20-Mar-86 13:28:32 EST Article-I.D.: mit-vax.5 Posted: Thu Mar 20 13:28:32 1986 Date-Received: Thu, 27-Mar-86 20:57:09 EST References: <1724@decwrl.DEC.COM> <98@gilbbs.UUCP> Reply-To: slk@mit-vax.UUCP (Siu-Ling Ku) Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA Lines: 70 Summary: Why not job training? In article <98@gilbbs.UUCP> mc68020@gilbbs.UUCP (Tom Keller) writes: >In article <1724@decwrl.DEC.COM>, mahoney@dec-bartok.UUCP writes: >> 2) When someone enters Welfare they immediately get put into job >> training. > > What about persons who are not mentally competent enough to acquire such >skills? What about those who are severely distuebed emotionally, and cannot >cope with other people sufficiently well to deal with the training and work >environments? What about those who are physically disabled to the point that >such training is not helpful? Nice ideas, but not very thouroughly thought >out. Those who are mentally or physically handicapped to a point where they cannot function normally in society should be distinguished from the "general" population who are on welfare due to inability to find jobs. The only way to get those who are out of jobs back into the job market is to give them skill. About mental competence, not all jobs require a lot of brian. Most "blue collar" jobs requires more hand eye coordination than IQ and a lot of "white collar" jobs don't need a lot of brians either (computer programmers for one :-). > One of the problems we have in this country is that the conservative, >anti-humanist factions have managed to convince much of the public that >the poor, the elderly and the disabled are, to borrow Reagan's infamous >phrase "...a faceless mass, waiting for a handout". The facts are that this >simply isn't true. I believe a sizable minority of those in welfare ARE looking for a handout. (Send flames to /dev/null). > Elitism be damned. The fact is that a very large percentage of the >population simply does not have the intellectual capability necessary to >achieve this sort of success. Come on, an educated person doesn't imply high intelligence, and vice versa. Whether a person has a marketable skill has NOTHING to do with intelligence. As long as one believe that one doesn't have the intellectual capability to succeed, one won't. (I am not saying if one believe one can succeed, one would.) > People who are born of poverty and despair, raised in poverty and >despair (... ...), are likely to live in >poverty and despair. It is what they have been taught to expect, and what >many of them believe they deserve. Absolutely agreed. What one expect is often what one gets. So the point is to offer them something realistic and attractive so that they have the motivation of achieving it and the confidence that they could achieve it. Job training is the only way to break the cycle. Living in welfare must be made unpleasant (hold on to your flames) but not to the point of inhumane, this provide the motivation to get out of welfare. A not so good analogy is like driving into city during rush hour, you can get by like that but there is got be a better way. Municipal officials try to force people into using public transportation by making private transportation a headache. Then one needs an alternative, without which the first point would gradually becomes inhumane (eg., driving in Boston). Holding down a factory job may not be the most interesting way to make a living, but I am sure a lot of welfare recipients (those who are not looking for a handout) would like to have a chance in getting a steady, skilled or semi skilled, job. So the carrot is to provide job training so they could compete for such jobs. -- Siu-Ling Ku {decvax, harvard}!mitvax!slk slk%vax@mit-mc.ARPA