Look around you, and within your own culture. How on earth can you even begin to fathom fixing a society that over consumes and destroys.

All we do is reward bad decisions. Govt, Banks, Poor People.

You speak like there is a difference cause these people are on the bottom of the ladder?

The only difference is in the manifestation and, in many cases, the degree of the acute problem(s) of any particular cohort one decides to slice, dice and analyze. This is but one topical example. Read the last five years worth of posts around here and you'll find examples that will seemingly meet your requirements.

Why have I never heard of such a story occurring in Levittown?

I seem to hear more of these stories since Farah Fawcett "walked" in "The Burning Bed". Does life imitate art?

I have spoken to a number of divorce lawyers about this, they all report that domestic violence among middle calss whites is extremely rare.

Marc,

Hate to sound like an old fart but when we're able to put the stink back on shame and society joins in, then we'll start to reduce the overall picture of the thug sub-culture of dependency.

Cases like this may not completely disappear but maybe if the general society becomes disgusted enough, our government would at least cut funding to the baby machines.

Now, the scumbag that beats his woman, well, I'm thinking a public square, shackles and lots of rocks.

The inner city is a breeding ground for government dependence and abuse. Don't let anybody fool you with talk of consumption and destruction or class ladders. If they are in any way connected to the culture they try to support with confusing comments then they are well aware of how things are done.

Babies are born out of wedlock not by mistake, rather by design. Teenaged mothers are not stigmitized, they are rewarded by the families that should be teaching them how to thrive in a society full of opportunity rather than existing on meager government handouts.

Individually the benefits are meager, and barely provide the necessities. Collectively the programs anchor our government in mediocrity and have created a dependent class of people who will have a difficult time breaking the cycle and becoming productive citizens.

Roland/Michael...Exactly.

Isn't this exactly the type of stuff that Bill Cosby and Jason Whitlock are often talking about? We need more role models like that, for them to expand in numbers and in message. Imagine if Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson instead turned their message to stop beating your baby's momma, get a job, stay with your family, stay in school, be responsible.

>>Individually the benefits are meager, and barely provide the necessities. Collectively the programs anchor our government in mediocrity and have created a dependent class of people who will have a difficult time breaking the cycle and becoming productive citizens.

Well, how else do you expect the Poverty Institute and its affiliated poverty industry to maintain its human inventory?

Without a human inventory they're out of business.

The poverty industry is just human trafficing operating under the guise of compassion or, if you prefer, "social justice."

"The flowering of human society depends on two factors; the intellectual power of outstanding men to conceive sound, social and economic theories and the ability of these or other men to make these ideologies palatable to the majority." -- Ludwig Von Mises

"...political leaders must make the ideology acceptable to the people. Of course, the ideology of welfare and socialism is easier to sell since it's based on the majority getting something for free. But when the people recognize that's only a temporary situation they will become more open to the suggestion that freedom offers more, once the bankruptcy of statism is acknowledged. Such a condition is becoming more apparent every day." --Ron Paul

In Rhode Island, is it becoming "apparent" enough? Nothing will change until it does.