AN END TO GENERATIONAL POVERTY
THE PLAGUE
Long before there was the COVID-19 pandemic, a plague had gripped America – and refused to let go. That plague is generational poverty. Just like so many biological diseases, this economic disease is indiscriminate. It knows no limits of geography or race. Native Americans, African-Americans, whites, Hispanics, Asians all can be found victimized – whether living in rural or urban areas. But unlike most biological diseases, this disease is passed along from generation to generation. And rather than affect one or two individuals at a time, this disease is a community disease, infesting communities and condemning their residents to economic Purgatory. It is a disease that robs individuals of their present, potential, future, and even their hope.
The problem exists even though long ago it became a cause célèbre. It exists even though it has been preached about for decades by politicians looking to benefit from the problem. And most sadly, it exists today even though for decades the Federal government has provided both the law and the funds to eradicate it.
THE VISION
Franklin Delano Roosevelt had a vision: Regardless of economic duress, every American would have a job, and earn a living. In good times, the market economy would provide that security for almost all Americans. In bad times, Americans who couldn’t find jobs in the market economy would be employed in productive jobs (such as building Boulder Dam) working for Government. Youth in families in dire financial need would not need to find jobs. Instead, the Government would care for them in CCC and NYA camps which provided a full education plus productive work experience with pay. In Texas, for example, all of the state parks were constructed by the CCC. Other youth could stay at home and stay in school – yet have paying jobs also through the CCC and NYA.
During the Depression, America would commit its financial resources – government resources – to ensure children were educated and ready for the workplace, and adults had jobs.
And so, born in the 1930’s Great Depression the WPA, CCC, NYA and other federal programs saved the lives of countless Americans – and gave all Americans hope in that otherwise hopeless time.
THE CURE
No new vaccine needs to be created. The cure is available – now, not tomorrow - to end the despair and hopelessness felt by youth in those communities plagued by generational poverty. It is that hopelessness – a very real hopelessness that the American Dream to them is an illusion – that results in the self-fulfilling prophecy of generational poverty. The cure is not something that needs to be created - it simply needs to be implemented, and yesterday's generation will be the last generation to suffer this affliction.
Ask us to help implement that cure - NOW.
