TGW wrote:dckingsfan wrote:
And regardless of fault - it is probably the single most important issue we should focus to improve the lives of black children. I am still waiting on a good proposal from either the Rs or Ds on this.
Two things affecting the lives of black children: economic deprivation and an de-emphasis on education. My plan would be to stabilize black households and incentavize education.
1) one-time reparations of $25,000 to married african-american households that have been in-tact for at least 3 years and have NOT been on government assistance in the past 3 years (with a salary cap of $200K net household income). This would minimize the systematic dependency on government assistance, and allow the black community to purchase stores, businesses, properties, and other items that build wealth.
AA's who are not eligible = immigrants, children of immigrants (like me), couples making over $200K net hh income (also me), those who've been on government assistance in the past 3 years, and interracial households or children of interracial background (a line would have to be drawn somewhere)
2) tax benefits for AA households with children obtaining/maintaining a certain GPA. this would incentivize parents to be involved in the schooling of their children, since it would benefit them during tax time. unfortunately, because white people with HS diplomas are more likely to get a job than a black college grad, higher education in the black community has been stigmatized. we need to end that cycle.
i know these ideas would be unpopular, but the black community is in the situation there in mostly because of the government. my opinion is that AA's should be a protected group, much like native americans.
These are interesting ideas, TGW. In general, I'm not supportive of the idea of reparations, but at least you are making an honest attempt at providing those reparations payments in a manner that might have a long term beneficial impact. I really like the incentive structure here. I think your salary cutoffs are too high though - perhaps because your frame of reference living in the high cost DC area. $200K a year is a fortune in most of the country - enough to rank among the top 1%. I'd make the cutoff $100K, or maybe $125K.
I'm a little leery of that 2nd part, mostly because GPA is too easily to manipulate. I envision an entire movement to threaten and cajole teachers into providing good grades that may not be deserved. That would ultimately be a disservice to the kids that we are trying to help. I'd feel much better about the idea if the barometer was based on standardized testing, not GPA.
Plus, this looks to be one of MSNBC's live vote polls, and it doesn't make much sense given other polling data on the subject. Rasmussen's poll found 66% of Republicans favor Trump's proposal vs. about 25% for Democrats. Overall, they found 46% in favor of Trump's proposal. I tried weighting for approximate population shares, which (based on my reading of the numbers) would indicate about 25% support Trump's proposal (about where Rasumussen pegs Democrat support). Read your way, it would indicate roughly 75% support for Trump's proposal, which would be at odds with other polls that say support is around 45-46%.
