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June 2004
According to liberals, the world’s poor are poor because of white oppression/discrimination/racism/sexism/imperialism/colonialism. I’d rather agree with the cool economist, Walter Williams:
Rank countries along a continuum according to whether they are closer to being free-market economies or whether they’re closer to socialist or planned economies. Then, rank countries by per-capita income. We will find a general, not perfect, pattern whereby those countries having a larger free-market sector produce a higher standard of living for their citizens than those at the socialist end of the continuum….
[C]itizens of countries with market economies are not only richer, but they tend to enjoy a greater measure of human-rights protections.
Have you ever had the displeasure of seeing radical leftists protesting against alleged “human rights violations” committed by the United States as if this were Iraq or Zimbabwe? Speaking of Zimbabwe:
Once a food-exporting country, Zimbabwe stands on the brink of starvation. Just recently, President Robert Mugabe declared that he’s going to nationalize all the farmland. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that the consequence will be to exacerbate Zimbabwe’s food problems. Sierra Leone, rich in minerals, especially diamonds, with highly fertile land and home to the best port site in West Africa, has declined into a condition of utter despair. It’s a similar story in nearly all of south-of-Sahara Africa. Its people are generally worse off now than they were during colonialism both in terms of standard of living and human-rights protections.
My advice to Americans: stay in America.
Mona Charen says:
Moore is, of course, free to say that the war on terror is a clever cover story for George W. Bush’s attempt to line his own pockets. Or to suggest that as nasty as bin Laden is, he is nowhere near as bad as our president. But the reception this preposterous pastiche of lies, warmed-over conspiracy theories and free-floating venom has received from the Democratic elite as well as from the public reveals just how badly riven we are….
What should not go unnoticed however is that Michael Moore’s drivel is endorsed by leaders of the Democratic Party — indeed, by the ex officio leader of the Democratic Party, Terry McAuliffe. He attended the opening and emerged to declare the film “very powerful, much more powerful than I thought it would be.” He later told CNN, “Clearly the movie makes it clear that George Bush is not fit to be president of this country.” Other Democrats in attendance were Senators Tom Daschle (D., S.D.), Tom Harkin (D., Iowa), Max Baucus (D., Mont.), Ernest Hollings (D., S.C.), Debbie Stabenow (D., Mich.), Bill Nelson (D., Fla.), and Congressmen Charles Rangel (D., N.Y.) and Jim McDermott (D., Wash.). As Byron York points out, all of them, and John Kerry as well, should be asked by reporters if they endorse the conclusions of this movie.
A cadre of Useful Idiots. I can’t wait until someone asks me if I’m going to see that movie. It’ll be a horrid sight. I’m going to…to…calmly tell them that I’m not.
John Kerry emerges from his post-Reagan-funeral hiatus with sound bites and promises…to spend more of your money!
He was visiting his buddy (guy in the tan suit) in Chicago yesterday and offered up more of the same fixing-the-educational-system hype and reached out to “minorities” with the rich v. poor routine.
Kerry ranted about doing away with “tax cuts for the rich”, which we’re supposed to assume will pay for all his new educational programs. He proposes a big-government spending trap called the “National Education Trust Fund.” According to his campaign web site:
John Kerry believes it is time to stop sending mandates from Washington to school districts without providing the resources needed to carry them out. Kerry will make a new deal on education — if Washington is going to mandate accountability for our schools, then the funding should be mandatory. Kerry is proposing a “National Education Trust Fund” to make sure that, for the first time ever, the federal government meets its obligation to fully fund our education priorities.
Pouring more money down the drain with promises of “reduced class size” and “higher teacher pay” is passé and trite, so here’s something fresh. The No Excuses project offers real solutions that will require some grunt work:
Across the nation dozens of principals have demonstrated that with effective school leadership children of all income levels can excel. The No Excuses project has identified seven common traits in low-income schools that excel:
1. Principals are free.
2. Principals use measurable goals to foster achievement.
3. Master teachers bring out the best in a faculty.
4. Rigorous and regular testing are used to improve student performance.
5. Achievement is the key to discipline.
6. Principals work with parents to make the home a center of learning.
7. Effort creates ability.
According to the people in the trenches, this is what it will take to properly educate low-income children. It’s not very glamorous and won’t make headlines, but I think it’s the best hope for inner-city schools.
So whenever you hear politicians talking about a “trust fund”, hold on to your wallets. Kerry says he plans to raise our “annual investment” in education from $23.8 billion to about $35 billion.
Good idea. He should start with his wife’s bank account.
Update (10:00pm): I wrote the following in response to a commenter and realized it should have been included in this post:
Me: “[If] you’re implying that No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is an ‘unfunded mandate’ (which most critics do), it’s neither unfunded nor is it a mandate. Education spending has actually increased under Bush (unfortunately), and state budget shortfalls can’t be blamed on the NCLB. States are allowed to opt-out of NCLB. John Kerry touts his ‘trust fund’ based on the unfunded mandate argument. People who don’t know the law or how the budget process works usually fall for such tactics.”
Good Night!
