Affirmitive Action

[The Yankee]

Hmm...from my experience here, many people are stuck below the poverty line because they don't have the adequate oppurtunities like decent public schools to help them get out of it. This is also made worse because many people already think that all poor people are just lazy....so why help them out?

There are also a lot of people born into poverty because their parent (or both parents, in some cases) came to the US (or another industrialized nation, UK, France, Germany, so on) so that their children would have a better chance at making something of themselves. It's not the child's fault they were born in the crappy inner cities.

 

[sysyphus]

I agree with the Yankee, poverty is a cycle, and you don't just up and walk out of it. Education costs are high and a little nepotism goes a long way, that's reality.

This is not to say that it is impossible to work one's way out of poverty, it has been done many times over after all.

However, in no way shap or form do I see Affirmative Action as an adequate tool for breaking the cycle of poverty. It is regressive to say the least.

 

[The Yankee]

It is....it's why I don't like Affirmative Action....especially since it also works for minorities who happen to be born into wealth....they can go by without doing a thing!

My point is that a better way to help underpriveliged minorities (and the majorities that are in that class as well, I know everyone forgot about them) is to help those (who aren't as lazy as some people may think...well, a lot aren't lazy) to be able to become prosperous and better educated and a better contributor to society and able to raise families that aren't growing up in some kind of inner-city horror.

Like I've said....Affirmative Action may have been useful 30 years ago...but now, it's just silly....but not in a funny way.

 

[andrewgprv]

Originally posted by sysyphus
I agree with the Yankee, poverty is a cycle, and you don't just up and walk out of it. Education costs are high and a little nepotism goes a long way, that's reality.

In the US anyone can take loans to go to college those loans arn't repayable untill you are done with college. Why can't a poor kid take out some loans to become a doctor just like a middle class kid would.

 

[Stapel]

As I have posted in several AA threads before:

AA fights the effects and NOT the causes! I think it is fine to send tax money to poor areas to support schools and sports facilities or so. But demanding that a certain percentage of the fire fighting corps should be female, black or gay is just stupid...

 

[The Yankee]

Originally posted by andrewgprv


In the US anyone can take loans to go to college those loans arn't repayable untill you are done with college. Why can't a poor kid take out some loans to become a doctor just like a middle class kid would.

Hmm...well, people do need opportunities to get into some of the great colleges in the first place. As for loans, they are incredibly hard to pay back if people had to borrow for everything. I myself am taking amount a good deal of loans, but it is EXTREMELY helpful that I've gotten scholarships and grants in addition to that...it would make paying back the tens of thousands of dollars doable. My household income is probably going to be around $75,000, and it's still hard to get to college, not even going anywhere about the high rents and taxes and everything else (reminder: I only bring in a small portion of that money, the rest is from my mother's job and my father's workers' compensation and pension).

You also forget that to really make any money as a decent doctor, the student would have to move out of the crappy inner-city to begin with....that takes money to move and more money for higher rents in addition to having to start paying back the huge loans a med. school graduate takes, and that's before the newly minted doctor makes any profit for a living! At least with a middle class family behind him or her, the financial pressure is lessened somewhat. I still think there should be money toward helping the lower classes. Those that jump up and seize the opportunities they otherwise would never have had would benefit greatly and society gets another great member, and there are a lot of people that would love for the chance to pull themselves up out of these desperate areas. Those that don't want to take advantage of that....well, that really is their choice and they will suffer...unless they go and play basketball....it's hard to help those that don't want help.

Originally posted by Stapel
As I have posted in several AA threads before:

AA fights the effects and NOT the causes! I think it is fine to send tax money to poor areas to support schools and sports facilities or so. But demanding that a certain percentage of the fire fighting corps should be female, black or gay is just stupid...

I agree. There are just some areas of the USA that have nothing but white people. To force colleges and police departments to try to entice minorities to move over there so they could comply with quotas is just silly and it's robbing the people already there of chances to get in. I advocate programs for the poor...no matter what race. It shouldn't have to be about who's skin is darker.

 

[cgannon64]

Affirmative Action leaves the poor whites behind, but does help the poor blacks. As I have said in other threads, and several said here, economic affirmative action would be much better than racial affirmative action.

 

[sysyphus]

Originally posted by andrewgprv
In the US anyone can take loans to go to college those loans arn't repayable untill you are done with college. Why can't a poor kid take out some loans to become a doctor just like a middle class kid would.

A student loan is barely enough to pay for tutition, texts and a carboard box to live in. As a former student who took out such a loan, take my word it's not all that easy. I made it through with parental support, and I'm not sure I could have made it without them.

I know some students who were on financial aid and still ended up dropping out due to financial reasons.

 

[SoCalian]

As a said before, it is just in my experience that most people under the poverty line are just lazy. That may just be the way it is around where I live.