Posted by
Maudie in Mandeville on Saturday, June 21, 2008 11:54:36 PM
It almost reminds you of the Tuskegee experiments, doesn't it? If you haven’t read this article titled
American Murder Mystery, it’s well worth the four pages. (link posted from
Powerlineblog.com via
Byron York)
‘If replacing housing projects with vouchers had achieved its main goal—infusing the poor with middle-class habits—then higher crime rates might be a price worth paying.’
So writes the article’s author as she chronicles how social scientists are finding their failed 60's experiment baffling and disappointing. There’s nothing baffling about it.
Right there was the problem with Section 8 housing vouchers which moved inner city blacks out into the suburbs along with its crime. The goal was never to 'infuse the poor with middle-class habits'. Can you even imagine a government program today or 60 years ago with such a stated (racist) goal. It was to simply diffuse poor blacks throughout the area so that big city urban mayors and developers could attract business, tourists, and middle to upper income tax payers. If social engineers in the universities actually thought the diaspora would lead to less criminal behavior, a renewed work ethic, and a moral renaissance, it has to be attributed to the liberal mental disorder.
It’s laughable to imagine an educational requirement to receive a housing voucher whereby blacks first learn ‘middle class habits’. But, it’s exactly why so many lottery millionaires are broke within a few years; they don’t know how to live with their new wealth, and voucher recipients never learned how to take care of their new home or apartment. An additional similarity stems from the fact that what is earned rather than given or ‘won’ is also valued and appreciated more.
Keep a few things in mind when reading about the ‘racist’ white homeowners of the 20th century and the ACLU type who sued the government to allow blacks to pay only 25% rent with a Section 8 voucher while living next door. Would you really want anyone, black or white, moving into the neighborhood who wouldn’t or couldn’t maintain the place, who couldn’t afford a lawn mower, who had little interest in watering the grass, not to mention little idea of how to behave and raise a real family.
Pay particular attention to the words of the blacks who moved out of the crime ridden, decrepit projects into their dream home or apartment, it’s not David Duke speaking. By the way, the projects weren’t crime ridden and decrepit when they first moved in. Also, toward the article’s end, note how ‘Researchers have started to look more critically at the Gautreaux results’, which was the impetus to expand the program nationwide.
Another telling point of the article which is sure to be missed by the housing social engineers looking to find the reason(s) for failure is this gem; ‘The white people, mostly young couples, including little kids and pregnant wives, sat around on Eddie Bauer chairs with beer holders, chatting. The black people, mostly women with children, were standing awkwardly around the edges.’ Please note, nowhere in all the article or interviews is there mention of a black adult tenant, and certainly none of a father. Yeah, dads do make a difference. Thank you liberal welfare state.
Today, it’s a yawn when a black family moves into a million dollar neighborhood, even houses priced ‘from the low 100’s’. The reason? There’s no Section 8 for those houses. Everyone knows the new neighbors can afford a lawn mower, knows how to use one, and are invested in maintaining the property values of the neighborhood. We’re talking about problems created by the nanny state. In fact, the story is a reflection once again of liberal busy bodies, coming up with an idea to do good, and using government to social engineer their schemes. As the article notes, knocking down the projects and dispersing its inhabitants throughout each city and its surrounding suburbs, was ‘an effort considered by fellow housing experts to be their great contribution to the civil-rights movement.’
Everyone’s heart goes out to the grandmother when reading about raising her grandson (there’s another causal effect of welfare and the moral deterioration in our country) who gets beaten up (by blacks) as he tries to stay out of the reach of the gangs. But given the success rate of any government social program in the last 60 years, when you are finished reading, recall those ‘racist’ white homeowners who, not having the luxury of 60 years to look back on, were afraid of falling property values and this kind of crime. Ask yourself, “How wrong were they?” Maybe you’ll be asking yourself “How right were they?”