Last night’s “movie with Yogi” on the YES network was Hoop Dreams. It follows two young men pursuing their dream of an NBA career from High school basketball to failure.
Along the way, it does give an EXCELLENT view to what it means to be trapped by a welfare system as well as trapped in one’s own thinking or one’s own character flaws.
I don’t have an handy dandy glib advice for those fellows. Perhaps the advice keep it zipped. I think either Sowell, or Williams, or one of the other economists I read, said something like “postpone a family” and “complete school” are the two keys to escaping the welfare system. One reason I support Mercer County Homefront is they are striking at the root of poverty — people’s thinking. I can only envision what life would be like if instead of a government welfare trap that a slew of “Homefronts” across the land.
People would still be poor.
As long as resources are scarce, there will ALWAYS be the “poor”. There’s always a bottom of any bell shaped curve.
But, it doesn’t have to be demeaning, demoralizing, degrading, and demotivating. Remember the immigrant who said “I want to be from the country with fat poor people”. The poor people in this movie had stuff, but not the “smarts” to escape to a better life. Not that they were “dumb”, but that they couldn’t see thru the illusions, delusions, and propaganda. I wonder how much I can see “thru”? And, aren’t we as a society so much worse off when our fellow residents of Planet Earth can’t achieve their potential. Maybe one of these young men was supposed to cure cancer or bring world peace. But, because “we” didn’t have a system in place that allowed them to do it, it didn’t get done. Sad for all of us.
I heard so MANY things in this movie that indict the system.
The best was Spike Lee telling the McDonald’s All Americans at Princeton that “it was all about money”. My opinion of him went up listening to him spell it out.
The executive from Encyclopedia Britannica came off well. One wonders what motivated her, and what was the follow up. Dealing with poverty can be overwhelming from a personal level. One person can’t fix the system.
All in all, an eye opening, but very sad experience, for all involved. Including me!
Reinke Faces Life 