Thursday, September 20, 2012

Something Smells Fishy!

In a political debate thread on FB the other day, I read the following argument:

Democratic Economic Policy: “Give a man a fish so he can eat for a day”
Republican Economic Policy: “Teach a man to Fish so he can eat for life”.

This is an argument that is made by the GOP all of the time…so much so that people start to believe it. I started thinking about it in depth, and it bothered me. When the politicians, and news programs, and Facebook “arguers” repeat this…most people just let it slide. But if you look at policy, the fishing analogy doesn’t hold water. I have re-written the age-old adage as follows:

Democratic Economic Policy: “Teach a man to fish, help him get a pole and some bait, and he will eat for a lifetime”

Republican Economic Policy: “If a man gets hungry enough, hopefully he will find some fish to eat somewhere…just don’t let him anywhere near my fish”.

Before you go all nuts on me…I did a little research. We all know that Republicans want to cut taxes to help stimulate the economy (that’s another blog). In order to do that…they need to cut government spending. There was a list of funding cuts that the GOP budget proposed: http://www.usnews.com/news/washington-whispers/articles/2011/01/20/house-gop-lists-25-trillion-in-spending-cuts. If you go to the link, you will see (as I did) that are some really good cuts that could, and should be made. (I actually agree that government spending is out of control).

This blog post, however, is not about good budget cuts…it is about the nonsense of the GOP teaching people to fish. The following are some of the programs on the list that are set up to help a guy get out on that fishing trip. These are all programs that the Republicans want to CUT funding for:

Ready to Learn Program ($27 million cut): Findings from a “Ready to Learn 2005-2010" independent research study, conducted under grant funding from the Ready to Learn Television program, found that using combinations of well-designed educational media, including television, websites, and other digital platforms, can be effective in improving literacy skills among low income children, ages 2-8.

A program…specifically designed to help LOW INCOME CHILDREN improve their literacy…and proven to work??? How the HELL is that not teaching the kids to Fish? Seriously?

Corporation for Public Broadcasting ($445 million cut): Basically the same argument as listed above. CPB provides such a service, especially to young children, to supplement more traditional forms of education. It is rooted in developing cognitive skills, and moral values. All without commercials!

National Endowment for the Humanities ($165.5 million cut): Offers grants to #1: Strengthen teaching and learning in schools and colleges. #2: Facilitate research and original scholarship. #3: Provide opportunities for lifelong learning. #4: Preserve and provide access to cultural and educational resources. Seems like there is a lot of good fishing equipment to be found with these grants…no?

U.S. Trade Development Agency ($55 million cut): Helps USA businesses set up trade to export their products and/or services for overseas sales.

Market Access Program ($200 million cut): MAP forms a partnership between non-profit U.S. agricultural trade associations, non-profit U.S. agricultural cooperatives, non-profit state-regional trade groups, small U.S. businesses, and USDA's CCC to share the costs of overseas marketing and promotional activities, such as trade shows, market research, consumer promotions for retail products, technical capacity building, and seminars to educate overseas customers.

SMART ASS COMMENT: The two programs listed above are set up to help businesses, in the USA, market and sell their PRODUCTS overseas through export. This leads to increases in production, and therefore increased jobs. Call me crazy, but I think this is a better plan for Americans than the GOP approach of sending the JOBS oversees. (OK. Got the exaggerated jab at the GOP out of the way)

Community Development Fund (4.5 billion cut) : The CDFI Fund was created for the purpose of promoting economic revitalization and community development through investment in and assistance to community development financial institutions (CDFIs). This is a program that was implemented to help low income communities (you know….the ones that don’t know how to fish) develop their towns and businesses to attract companies (that create Jobs), and provide financial education and counseling (so they can manage the money they make at their jobs) among other things such as affordable housing, and “New Market Tax Credits” as a way to encourage businesses to locate themselves in lower income areas.

These are just a small handful of the programs that, by definition, are designed to give people the skills they need to “fish”. There are many more, that also face the cuts, but I just focussed on a few.

I know there are some pretty committed conservatives reading this…..so I ask you: If the GOP wants to cut these programs, fine. But explain to me how THEY are teaching people how to fish? This is a sincere question that I would really like your input on. As many times as I have heard the good ole’ “We Republicans teach a man how to fish” I have yet to hear one example, of HOW they teach a man to fish?

It really seems to me, that they are not interested in teaching, but rather letting a man either figure it out, or go hungry.

2 comments:

  1. Ok a Ready to Learn program that costs 27 million delivered via TV and computer. How does that make sense for low income children who one might guess do not have the TV or computer dedicated to their education? I can't help but also wonder why the parents aren't in charge of teaching moral values or teaching their kids how to count or recite the alphabet.
    Regarding strengthening teaching, maybe schools should be allowed to evaluate teachers and get rid of the ones who are not doing the job. Some of the descriptions sound great but are quite vague. "provide lifelong learning opportunity"-- what exactly?
    Good luck with economic development in the low income areas. Saw a report last night about those areas in Chicago, one developer build a housing development for low income with the help of Barack Obama, his attorney. The developer provided no heat or water for a full winter and got off with a $50 fine.
    Even if you held classes on how to fish many would not attend.

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  2. Ok Chris. You did a great job at attacking the problems with these programs. My question, that is still unanswered, is what are REPUBLICANS doing to "teach a man to fish" as they so often claim they do.

    And how are the parents of these kids supposed to teach ABC's if they are working 60 hours a week at minimum wage jobs just to pay rent and hopefully buy food. Especially if any hope for after school programs are eliminated with the cuts, so they have to pocket over money for childcare, that is likely untrained childcare because they can only afford $5/hour.

    Also...I am in agreement that teachers should be evaluated based on performance...and they should get raises based on performance...but that was not the point of this blog.

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