For the love of humanity, what is with all the shootings?  Is this what a severe recession is?  The economic woes certainly play a role, but it’s troubling that such senseless violence is occurring so frequently when this financial crisis is still unfolding.  If we look at the murder rates from 1929-1933 (the beginning and height of the Great Depression) we see a rise from 8.4 in 1929 to 9.7 in 1933, after which it steadily declined. Continue Reading

A recent article on RasmussenReports.com entertained the idea that legalizing marijuana might actually do some good for the struggling economy. While the main focus of the piece is a recent poll stating that 40% of Americans favor legalization, it was the following excerpt that was the most interesting nugget of information in the article:

The World Health Organization estimates that 42% of Americans have tried marijuana, the highest usage level in the 17 countries it profiled. Some researchers contend that marijuana is the number one cash crop in the United States.

Three Nobel Prize winners including Milton Friedman were among the more than 500 economists who endorsed a 2005 Harvard study that concluded that legalization of marijuana “would save $7.7 billion per year in state and federal expenditures on prohibition enforcement and produce tax revenues of at least $2.4 billion annually if marijuana were taxed like most consumer goods. If, however, marijuana were taxed similarly to alcohol or tobacco, it might generate as much as $6.2 billion annually.”

Given Obama’s public support for decriminalization in 2004 as well as his appointment of former Seattle police chief, Gil Kerlikowske, as drug czar, there is hope that rational thought rather than demented ideology will dictate America’s drug policy in the future.

For more information check out the following articles: Continue Reading

Poverty

One could argue the unfortunate trait that poverty possesses is its restrictive nature, a vile form of circumscription that prevents those affected from truly being able to lead a full and happy life. Poverty is a jail with no bars, no cell, no warden, but it confines just the same.  Freedom is not something enjoyed by the impoverished, at least those who continue to try and escape from the prison with no walls.  Sadly, the most wretched truism about poverty is that it is necessary, for without it society could not function.  Yes, it is natural to feel ill once making this sad but true realization. Continue Reading

Poverty is the modern world’s great problem.  In past centuries, poverty was the norm for the most people.  Now, the norm has shifted.  Most of the world can meet their basic living needs, leaving 1.1 billion of the world’s 6.5 billion population to wallow in poverty (Sachs 12).

The modern urge to eliminate poverty stems from poverty’s tendency to foster disease, crime, and hunger–three traits that are prevalent in most impoverished areas.  It is those three traits that pose great threats to the rest of the world.  Furthermore, what is also common among these impoverished areas is dramatic population growth, which exacerbates the above problems in addition to creating new ones–especially in places such as India and Africa.

Poor families typically have more children as more children means more family members that can contribute to the family whether it be working the fields, in the factories, or taking care of older family members (Lappé, Collins, and Rosset).  This trend leads one to believe that it is poverty, which leads to overpopulation, but could it be that overpopulation creates poverty?  These are the two arguments, which many social scientists and social aid programs are currently debating. Continue Reading