Pioneer1

Admin Don't care too much for giving my birthdate in a public forum, but I'm an Aries too. While I don't believe the star(s) you're born under can tell you your future or destiny, I do believe it helps to shape your personality and temperment. As an Aries I've found that I have much more success when I'm honest and direct with people than when I try to be smooth and diplomatic. Waterstar I'm not going to lie, I don't consider myself very psychic or sensative but I know some people who do. The reason it's called paranormal or "outside of normal" is because most people aren't sensitive enough to pick up on activity from the spiritual realm. For most people psychic experiences and communication with spirits are rare. Cynique As much as I believe in psychic experiences, I have an interesting theory about SOME feelings of de ja vu.... I believe there's some sort of chemical or mechanism in the brain that signals familiarity with our surroundings and sometimes when it spontaneously misfires we may get a FEELING of having known something or been to certain place before when infact we haven't. I may have been kneeling or sitting in an akward position for too long and when I got up too quickly with the blood rushed to my head I sometimes got that "de ja vu" type feeling.

Lol @ calling me out...... ((smiles and rubs chin)) Now Cynique.......do you REALLY want to do this? You've tangled with me before and.......when I got through with you....you were so frantic you weren't sure whether you were still logged in or not, LOL. Now, you don't want to argue with me..... What you want to do is.... Just caaaalm down, Grab your faaaavorite little cup with the sleepy teddy bear on it, Fill it full of chamomile tea with a touch of honey, And after relaxing and giving it deep thought, I'm sure you'll arrive at the wisest decision. BTW, I don't think there's anything wrong with prostitutes as long as they are free of disease and underage. Prostitution should be legalized and regulated. I have a few women in my life who understand me and how I am but I'm not gonna lie, I HAVE paid for and probably WILL pay for a lot of fun in Canada and even when I went to Europe....lol. I haven't dealt with prostitutes in America, not just because it's illegal but but also because of the diseases so many of them have and how nasty so many look today. Most of the prostitutes in America are out "ho'ing" for drugs and not really being professional about thier work. But I actually think prostitution in America should be legalized and regulated. If a man (or woman) wants to pay for sex and they aren't married....why shouldn't they be allowed to?

Cynique Well maybe politicians shouldn't get paid a salary. Maybe they should be paid a commission or bonus based on their performance. I know it works to improve the performance of most salesmen. If you're getting the same amount of pay whether your performance declines or improves, what is your incentive to improve things or even maintain them? No matter what type of government you implement, there will always be people who rise to the top of the food chain. This is true whether we're talking about Democracy, Dictatorships, or a Monarchy. Even in Anarchy where you have no official government you'll still have gangs of powerful men who'll go around raping and robbing others, with no organized government to check them. Troy That's correct....the U.S. is NOT a real Democracy. It's actually an Oligarchal Republic that is slowly turning into a Feudalist (privately owned) Aristocracy (ran by the rich). I believe in giving people freedom to express themselves as long as it doesn't ill effect the people around them. You can smoke all the dope you want as long as you don't start robbing old ladies and harrassing people on the street for money to support your habits. The problem now is there is something about this society that seems to either be MAKING or ALLOWING too many Black people to be lazy and immoral and it seems to have reached a boiling point to where you can't go to a mall or turn on the television without seeing embarrassing evidence of this deterioration. Women cussing and shouting at their kids in the store with other women looking at them in shock and horror. Young men standing around with snot running out their nose and begging for money while rapping to themselves. Even when some of our people have professional customer service jobs like at the DMV and Post Office you'll find them slouching around 200 pounds overweight, uniforms fitting on them sloppy and chewing on a damn toothpick as they laugh and talk trash with eachother. The lack of professionalism among so many of our people is astounding. Even people from other countries can come over and immediately detect that something isn't quite right. This system is clearly not working for most of our people.

Cynique Lol.....you HOMOPHOBE !!!! I'm not going to defined religious hypocrisy but I will say that most people recognize that just like some crimes are more serious than others, it's reasonable to believe that some SINS are more serious than others. In most religions, fornication is not as bad as adultery and adultery isn't as bad as sodomy.

Admin Lol, are you talking to me or Cynique? She's the one accusing Black men of being oversexed creatures who walk around grinning with White girls dangling from their arms...not me. Then maybe I should have gone to college.....lol. But then again if I had....perhaps this conversation wouldn't be as lively. Well the status quo certainly isn't working so........

Cynique Lol, I see less interracial marriage between Black men and White women today than when I was a kid 30 years ago. When I was young most White men didn't want White women who were overweight and many would pass them up if they weren't blonde with blue eyes. After seeing them with Black men they decided to change their tune and take them back....lol. The media is actually promoting more White men with Black women than vice versa. Let's be clear, Black people aren't actually imitating the sexual habits of White people. They're TRYING to.... The problem is because of our biological make up, we can't. When White people try monogamy it usually results in sound healthy families; too often when our people and Latinos attempt monogamy it results in adultery and broken homes. The only non-White people who seem to be successful imitating European sexual and family habits seem to be East Asians. I suspect this is because their testosterone rates are similar to Whites. It's actually quite scientific. But the single biggest reason White women are able to practice better birth control and aren't walking around showing symptoms of STDs is becuase most tend to have access to better health care. Where is the "contradiction"? Polygamy isn't the same as promiscuity. Polygamy is MARRIAGE....a legally sanctioned contract that gives the spouses legal and financial benefits that simple "fucking around" (promiscuity) doesn't; not to mention giving children a more stable home to grow up in. I said adultery should be PUNISHED. Simple separation and even divorce isn't a real "punishment", especially when the offending spouse has no money to lose or no alimony to pay and therefor no real incentive to remain faithful in the first place. When I say punishment, I'm talking about forced to community service or hard labor...something that makes a person not want to continue the behavior. But the difference is..... I'm saying Black men are highly sexed by nature because most of our brothers were blessed with a high testoterone rate and I see it as a good thing. You're demonizing Black men by accusing them of being oversexed for lack of discipline. Only in a society where sex is considered sinful, demonic, and animalistic is a highly sexed man considered dangerous and bad. Broad sweeping generalizations????? Sort of like the way YOU accusing Black men of being horn-dogs.....lol.? Society......indeed civilization itself...has always been built around known patterns of behavior. AfroAmericans may be individuals but there is clearly a pattern of behavior found among our people and even if you don't realize this there are many social scientists who do. Corporations spend millions of dollars every year studying the patterns of Black behavior to figure out how to market to us and make money. Black people are individuals but there is a similar thread of thinking and behavior the runs through the community and social scientists understand this. You may have meant that as a slight, but actually you're quite on point, lol. I'm not the best looking man in the world..... I'm an introvert..... And I don't have a very high sex drive..... So I tend to focus on work and pushing my program more than romance. But when I want sex....I want it......but without the emotional drama that often comes with marriage in this society. The good thing is there are still women in this society who respect a man who is honest about his intentions, lol. But I'm NOT a married man so if I choose to screw around that's my business because I'm not hurting anyone in doing so, I took NO OATH to remain with one woman alone. When you're married things are different and you vow to a commitment and that commitment should be enforced.

Cynique Well...... There are entire websites dedicated to pregnant pornography, lol. Obviously the sexualization of pregnant women ain't sore on EVERYONE'S eyes! I see........ So what you're saying is, leave the protection alone and go ahead with oral sex because it's not enough to get an STD in the genitals where you can atleast hide it; now more people will have an opportunity to walk around with blisters and scabs on their mouths and noses! Lol....YOU'RE the one who continuously accuses Black men of "wanton breeding" and being horny bastards who want to hop on and hump every innocent unsuspecting woman who wanders through their line of vision! But you want to accuse ME of promoting a stereotype????? I'm not "failing to acknowledge" anything. I'm just not ashamed of Black sexuality and don't we should be pretending to be something we're not just to fit in and be accepted in a culture that clearly wasn't designed by or for us. The truth be told...... Some of our people actually DO pay more attention to their biological urges than their rational minds. Especially when they're young and don't have the maturity to acknowledge the full and projected consequences of their behavior. Most Black men don't reach full mental maturity until they get to be about 40. But a progressive society would understand and accept these facts and because they would expect this type of behavior, they would in turn design it's laws and cultural norms for it. You seem to suggest that we HIDE reality so as not to look like horny savages to White people. I on the other hand believe we should ACCEPT reality, embrace who we are, and make the best of who we are by proper preparation. Since we know young people WILL engage in sexual activity we will try our best to contain and eliminate sexually transmitted diseases (instead of calling them "God's curse") and make contraception and other forms of birth control more effective and available. Since we know our men are polygamous by nature, instead of plopping down in a chair with our arms folded and making silly remarks about the Black man's sexuality....lol. We would make polygamy legal but regulated and make adultery a punishable offense. That's the type of society a strong healthy Black family will develop and prosper in.

Cynique Actually, that would be ideal sometime in the future. But until we as a people gain the knowledge, discipline, and ethics to build and manage our own nation the next best thing is to be as successful as we can in this one and that starts with effective leadership in our local communities. Having a leader who is a good wheeler and dealer means that the deals he makes with the power that he has will benefit his constituents not make life harder for them. An alderman who can reduce crime and bring more city and state funds to his ward is worthy of his compensation. As hard as it may be for some people to stomach, the fact is, as long as he (or she) is progressing our community and getting things done then unless they're outright stealing it we really should get hung up about how much money they're making. For example.............. I know there are laws against it, but if Apple Computers were to pay my Mayor a million dollars to move it's headquaters to Detroit. If he agreed to take the money and allow them to come only under the condition that they brought 100,000 new jobs for the citizens of the city....why should I get angry and uptight that he took money from IBM? Look at the benefits! Look at the jobs he was able to bring! It's not like he cheated on his wife or killed somebody. He did what he was elected to do which is use his power to secure benefits for his people and he helped himself also. Would it to have been better than he refused the money and turn the jobs away too, just to so he can wear a white robe and a halo over his head as he walks among the unemployed homeless citizens of his city? Now if he's stealing money from the people and not doing anything for them, that's one thing- I don't support thieves, murderers, or adulterers. But I do support leaders who know how to negotiate, maintain law and order, and get things done. BTW, I don't support a dictatorship or any other form of totalitarianism. I think during times of emergencies they tend to be more effective than democracies, but in general I don't support them for the obvious reason that absolute power in the hands of a crazed or immoral man will lead to disaster. I personally think an OLIGARCHAL REPUBLIC is the ideal form of government. Similar to what we have today, Where a qualified few are elected to represent and rule the majority.

((Holds up an index finger in a professorial fashion)) Well now wait a minute, let us not miss the plot of the story here........ POLITICS IS ALL ABOUT MONEY AND POWER. And to be honest with you, I don't expect altruism from anyone I vote into office anyway. I want them to properly represent my district or city and bring as much money and jobs and perks home as they can get. I don't want to hear about some damn "budget deficit" or "finance reform"...lol. Now if my elected official can get rich in the process of doing this.....as long as I and the other constituents in the district/city are getting wealthier and more benefits as a result....good for them. You don't elect saints to office, you elect men with an agenda....and you should make sure THEIR agenda is in alignment with yours.

Cynique The breakdown of the family indeed comes from trying to imitate White people and their marriage/dating customs. As I said before, most Black men weren't made for monogamy....we are polygamous by nature and trying to FORCE Black men to settle down with only one woman for the rest of his life often leads to him cheating and producing babies out of wedlock. On top of that, Black people are SEXUALLY MATURE.... We don't need to date and hold hands and get goofy around eachother like a lot of Whites do to build up the nerve to have sex. We can get right to the sex and then go about our business. That's more natural for us. But because that type of sexual directness is frowned upon in a prudish Puritanical based society founded by Northern Europeans, it leads to a lot of AfroAmericans having to suppress their true sexuality. On top of that, we have a society where safe and effective birth control is too often considered a sin or is largely unavailable so unwanted pregnancies result just from doing what's natural. This system of marriage works for Whites and Northern East Asians who have a lower testosterone level and are not as sensual and produce less babies anyway, it does NOT work for most AfroAmericans and Latinos who are known to be very expressive and sensual people who tend to be very fertile. It's all about finding a culture intune with one's nature. No, but that lifestyle is actually FORCED on some Black men. How? OK...I'm not trying to sound funny, but because our sexual power is so strong (and I'm not necessarily talking about the act of sex itself but the masculine energy) that it often compels women to do whatever some Black men ask of them good or bad. When many Black men find out they have this kind of power, they often abuse it or mis-use it. Only a man with strong masculine energy can be a pimp or gigilo. Well I'm not a woman, but most women (including lesbians) tell me that no matter how much oral they get they still need some sort of penetration. BTW, you should be ashamed of yourself talking about things like that at your age.... LOL You have a problem with Halle Berry in a bikini showing off her baby-bump but can't wait to promote oral sex as some sort of safe sex alternative, lol.

I quote the Bible because it contains a lot of wisdom and good advice, but I don't see the book itself as the word of God. I'm not suggesting that Black women simply imitate White women for the pleasure of men. Actually, quite the opposite.......... Sexuality in the AfroAmerican community is pathological because Black people are too often trying to imitate Whites in thier sexual behavior even though our natures are different and this often leads to disaster and confusion.

Cynique Well I don't mind pregnant women showing as much skin as they like, as long as the skin is healthy. I always had a thing for pregnant women. It wasn't until I started surfing the internet that I found out it was an actual fetish that other men enjoyed, lol. But anyway.............. When I was a kid I used to hear older people complaining about Rap music and other music of my generation and I thought they were just being grumpy and unreasonable. But when I listen to the music of so much of the youth today and how music and espcially Rap has deteriorated not only morally but in terms of plain quality I can BEAR WITNESS to the degredation of Black music. Even the way young people dress today has deteriorated from being stylish and well put together to just wearing long white t-shirts and baggy pants looking like you just woke up and decided to step outside. But you know as sad as the situations seems to be for the youth of America, actually there seems to be a grand sepration taking place..... It seems that the conditions have been getting so bad in the AfroAmerican community and in America in general that many young people have learned from the destructive ways of their parents and seem to be trying to get things back on track and make it right from the next generation! For example........... I know a lot of young men who having grown up in homes where the father left and abandoned the family are now themselves married at an early age, taking care of thier children, and vowing never to abandon their families the way thier fathers did. I see a lot of young sistaz jogging up and down my street who said watching the older women in their family die of obesity and heart disease made them vow to eat right and exercise to keep that from happening to them. I've even theorized that the large amount of feminine acting young men is somehow as a direct result of the overwhelming violence so many of them saw growing up and their strange way of avoiding it. Well, if it takes a young man acting gay in order to keep him safe and alive...........((shrugs shoulders)) Like you said, sometimes things have to get so bad and hit rock bottom that the only thing to do is get better.

When I study Cuba, Venuzula, China and other nations ran by strong central governments and how organized they are as opposed to most other third world nations who try to adopt Western style Democracy............ When I look at places like Iraq and Libya that were ran by strong men or dictators who kept order in society and how things deteriorated after these dictators were taken out of power...... And the more I look at the sad economic, social, and moral situation so many AfroAmericans find themselves in in a so-called "free" society...... The more I wonder is Democracy the best form of government for US as AfroAmericans. This may sound outrageous but I actually think that people of color and especially AfroAmericans need a strong central government and perhaps even a "strong man" type of personality to not only lead and inspire them to build and maintain a strong nation/community but to FORCE them if necessary to do it instead of allowing them the "option" to be productive citizens. If you look at the world.......... The only Democratic nations where people have the freedom and option to just do what they're supposed to do and actually do it seem to be Europe. The only time people of color seem to unite collectively and perform at optimal levels is when they're forced to. What inspired me to ask this question was a video I saw of Haiti during the time of Papa Doc Duvalier and how organized and stable things seemed to be under this "dictator" and how things are today.

Not to change the topic of the thread but I have to say......... I notice that women despite thier age seem to be more eager to "keep up" or learn new things. I had a job where I worked around a lot of foreign nationals and the thing I noticed was that women and children seemed to learn English and American customs more so than adult men. Once the typical man got past 25 or 30 he often didn't care to know English outside of what he needed to know to make money (like a job), but the women were filling out applications, keeping the money, and answering the questions, lol. They all had that big heavy-ass purse they sit on their laps to pull out documents and money while their husbands or brothers just sat next to them with their hands in their pockets looking silly.....lol. I notice that in many other jobs to. Women tend to learn computers and other non-physically demanding things faster. My theory is most women don't seem to have the pride/ego that many men have so they are more open to learning new things and conforming without being embarrassed.

Troy ((sighs)) Yeah, I guess....... But I get kind of tired of the hypocrisy of many Black actresses who think it's so nasty and degrading to show a titty or pair of bare buttocks on the big screen but yet in every other movie they're dressing like hookers in tight miniskirts and leather coats smacking on gum, and although they aren't actually seen engaged in sex itself....sexual themes are constantly insinuated and often joked about in an immature way. White women can't wait to get naked on the screen. The men love it....and the women enjoy the attention they get from it. Many Black women have been tricked into thinking that being naked is somehow "disrespectful" to them. I mentioned this before.............. Black actresses NEED to get naked on the screen and young people NEED to see Black people in the sexual act making love to eachother. If they never see people who look like them with their body types nude and making love to eachother they develop inferiority complexes and become ashamed of themselves because they see the way White people look as the "normal" way.

Cynique A simple solution is better than no solution at all. Perhaps once you get the ball rolling the other components will fall into place through Divine providence. The teachers union and irate parents haven't compounded the problem.....they aren't helping much but they aren't compounding it. Plans to provide an inferior education to Black and Brown children in the ghetto were already laid out years before now and the teachers and parents are just having an emotional reaction to a problem they FEEL helpless to solve. The wars in Iraq and Afganistan are doing what they were designed to do and things are going as planned. The public was just lied to about the REAL reasons for going to war in the first place. I'm not trying to be funny but if you're really as old as you say you are you seem to not only be pretty coherent but technologically up-to-date.......lol. There are people in there 50s and 60s who scratch their heads trying to figure out how to even use a computer and call it a "machine". One of these days I'd like to ask you questions about how really America used to be and the social and moral differences in Black culture and morality today as opposed to when you were a kid.

Cynique Wow. Now that's a pretty morbid view of things.....lol...even from a self titled "cynique". Come on now, we know that EVERY problem has atleast one solution. Just because we may not know what that solution is, doesn't mean there isn't one. The very fact that something is a "problem" means it's out of order and needs to be placed back into it's proper place. The issue isn't coming up with solutions....... Actually we already know most of the solutions needed to solve the problems plaguing many of the urban areas of America. I've listed several of them in this thread alone and many more all through out this site, other sites, and my site. The problem is having the desire and courage to IMPLIMENT them. Problem: Gangs are out on the avenues harassing people and fighting eachother. Solution: Put more police on the street to monitor and arrest them. Now that's a solution. You can argue with that idea and bring up issues of having to pay for extra police and are they profiling young people. but the fact is it DOES WORK and it's a solution. Problem: People getting more obese and diabetic in America Solution: Eliminate high fructose corn syrup and other toxic chemicals from the foods and ban them in the U.S. like they do in Canada and Europe and you'll see obesity and diabetes rates plummet. That's a solution...it will work. You can argue about infringing on people's rights to eat what they want or the rights of manufacturers to use the products they wish, but the fact is removing these toxic additives and preservatives from the diet does work. Most of the problems this world faces is either directly or indirectly related to immorality whether it's murder/war, disease, hunger, political terror, ect....... There is enough technology and ability to solve over 90% of the problems this planet faces; the problem is most people don't have the desire to do that which will benefit anyone else outside of themselves and their immediate family.

Need I'm hip to the history of how the young lawyer and his band of men took power in Cuba and how most of the wealthy White Cubans fled to Miami because the new Communist government seized most of their land and businesses and was planning on seizing the rest of thier wealth....lol. All Americans and AfroAmericans in specific can learn quite a few lessons from the Cuban people not only in independence but in medicine and agriculture. You must wonder how such a small island nation maintains itself so well through a 50 year embargo. Pound for pound (and probably in actual numbers given the state of Black youth in America today) there are more Black doctors and scientists in Cuba than any other nation in the Western Hemisphere. Anika Cornel West! Now that's a name that I can trust. Always on point, and in an eloquent way. We need more Black intellectuals who can articulate our concerns in an effective yet non-hostile way.

Boys fight as a rites of passage. This has been going on for thousands of years even before America even existed. It's done naturally to establish a sense of hierarchy among males so you know where you stand when you get older. In other words....... If you can't fight worth a damn, it's best to find out when you're 8 and there's less of a chance of serious damage....than to find out when you're 20 and end up getting that ass "toe" up.....lol. It's the same with "bullying" to a CERTAIN extent (although some bullying is downright torture and shouldn't be tolerated). If something is "wrong" with you, you often learn at an early age from other children who don't know any better than to tell you so you can either correct the problem or learn to deal with it as you get older. MOST boys fight as a rites of passage if their testosterone levels are normal and they have been "sissified". Aggressiveness has been encouraged among young men through out time which is why they have militaries. The problem today is that many of the urban areas of America are now flooded with guns and not enough fathers and responsible men to CONTROL this natural aggression and rites of passage and so it has gotten out of control. Telling boys not to be aggressive or fight is not a viable answer because it's in their natures to be aggressive. A more appropriate and effective solution would be to limit the availability of guns and have more police officers in the neighborhoods and more security in the schools. And ofcourse bring back CORPORAL PUNISHMENT. Time out and this other psychological garbage they're trying may work on sissified rosy cheeked boys from sheltered backgrounds who've never been in so much as a fist fight.....lol. But if you try it as a form of punishment on hardcore urban teens who fight eachother just for fun, it's a dangerous joke. And I say dangerous because when you depend on weak and ineffective "solutions" to control a violence problem you are actually putting other people's lives and safety in jeopardy.

And as far as the Chinese goes.....they're bought off. Western corporations have figured out a way to get the Chinese government to enslave their own citizens for THEIR benefit. So in China you don't have communism, you have ultra capitalism with a tiny minority of government officials reaping most of the profits.

Yes, too much money can lead to inflation but most of the value of money or any other product is determined by DEMAND and not necessarily by supply. Look at oil. There's plenty of it, yet the cost continues to rise because of the DEMAND...not necessarily the supply. There is great demand for all the money they're printing up as they're using it for war, real estate, oil, paying off government workers, ect..... As long as the demand for the money is there it will be valuable. Again, the debt is just an excuse to point to. They were saying that the dollar was about to collapse from inflation back when the debt was only 5 trillion, then they really went crazy at 10 trillion. Now it's at 16 trillion and growing and the cost of food and most other things are still the same as it was back when the debt was 10 trillion and the economy is still buzzing. The goverment should be the great arbitrator. They are supposed to step in and do what the private citizens can't or won't do. When the free market and private investors refuse to jump in first and invest in rebuilding the innercity then the Federal Government has a RESPONSIBILITY to step in and initiate....and possibly carry most of the load if need be.

Troy Article 1 section 8 of the United States Constitution gives the Federal goverment the right to literally MAKE UP (in other words print and add value to) as much money as they want. The feds can print money. The state and local municipalities can't. This is just a plain fact. Sure the federal government can tax Americans and get money from various sources but they can also PRINT thier own money and that's where most of it is coming from now. This socalled "debt" is just a joke. An excuse conservatives politicians can point to when they don't want to fund projects that they don't support. Even Dick Cheney said debts don't matter. Do you really think they have plans to actually pay off $16 trillion??? Let us look at this logically..... Broke = no money Debt = you owe money. Debt doesn't necessarily mean broke. Just because you owe a lot of money doesn't mean you don't have any, most business people operate on a level of debt that often outweighs thier liquid assets. The United States was about 7 trillion in debt when they went to work with Iraq and Afganistan....where did they get the money to fight a 2 trillion dollar war? Come on man, they can print it up at will.

That's what they're supposed to do but not only are many major cities cash strapped but they are poorly managed and poorly laid out. On my website I go into the reasons why Detroit and many other cities have deteriorated from the inside out because of poor urban planning to begin with that didn't provide a dense enough tax base to maintain city services. Also many of these cities have a history of corruption and mismanagement which is why a jobs program should be initiated and closely supervised by the Federal Government to provide proper oversight and audit the money to make sure it goes to the people and projects it's supposed to. You're right....... That's how the system is SUPPOSED to work, but it actually doesn't work that way. What you're saying about having to get the tax dollars from somewhere else only applies when seeking funds from state or local governments. States and local municipalities don't have the ability to print thier own money or borrow money from one pocket to put it in the other like the Federal Government can, so thier money really is limited. Cash strapped cities used to borrow money and get generous grants from the Federal Government but the conservatives are turning the Federal faucet off to the states and cities. So now when your city is strapped for cash they tax the hell out of you or set up speed traps to get as much money out of the public as they can to keep the services up. However the Federal Government's pockets are deep, which is why they have money to continually extend unemployment benefits or come up with money for wars and space projects and other things all while being 16 trillion in the hole.....lol. Any jobs program on a large scale would eventually have to look to the Feds to receive adequate funding. That's my point. People keep waiting on charity or the private sector to step up and do what the government should be doing themselves. It's not the responsibility of charitable organizations, wealthy philanthropists, or venture capitalists to improve the infrastructure of America's cities.....it's the government's job. That's one of the reasons we HAVE a government isn't it? Sure some rich old ladies in sweat pants with water bottles can get out on a nice warm day and clean up a few allies and toss a few twinkies out to homeless people as they drive by on their way back home but it's not the responsibility of the church or rich people with big hearts to look out for the welfare of the citizenry. It's the government's responsibility. Most other Western industrialized countries accept this, America is the only wealthy nation where peope belive the government doesn't have a responsibility to help it's citizens and that they should turn to begging rich people for help.

There's already a demand for services in most innercities in America, and plenty of human capital to supply that service. The only difference is the Government is sitting around waiting for PRIVATE investors to organize and supply the services instead of THEM doing it themselves. I can give you 3 right off the bat: 1. Picking up trash and bulk items from the streets and alleys. 2. Sand blasting and painting over graffiti 3. Cutting the grass and cutting down the trees and overgrown brush in abandonned neighborhoods These are low skilled jobs that only require goggles, work gloves, and relatively decent health. No one should need a degree or have to pass a marijuana test just to do this.

People have to eat so the decisions are usually made FOR them by their limited opportunities. Whether you have a degree or not, it's the man in the suit behind the desk in the HR office who ultimately decides whether you get (and keep) that $100,000 a year corporate job. And if he/she decides to give it to their buddy or son-in-law instead then you're S-O-L. So now you're stuck with a degree, a lot of debt, and no other options but to......take the job mopping floors, try to sponge off friends/family, or try your hand in the illegal trades. Mopping floors wouldn't be so bad if it paid a LIVING WAGE. But most mainenance jobs don't, so most Americans take them only grudgingly as a last resort. That is....if those jobs are still available, because illegal immigrants take them happily! You can easily survive making only $7 an hour if there are 15 of you in one house and all are working 60 hours a week and sharing meals and rides. But what you're really asking is.....what is YOUR solution Pioneer??? I personally think...... And this is one of M-PACT's solutions by the way........ That the government (Federal or State) should create "guaranteed" community service type jobs where able bodied citizen who can't find adequate employment in the private sector can just sign up for a term with one of several government job programs and immediately get a wage performing low skilled work around the area. Roosevelt basically did this during the Great Depression with the WPA, NRA, and CCC These were government created jobs that didn't wait on the private sector to employ the masses of unemployed but put them to work (quite creatively) rebuilding the infrastructure of America. Hell, they're already spending billions to provide people with unemployment for 5 and 6 years a stretch. Why not take that same money and use it to put people to work giving them skills at the same time?