Gee, I'm Shocked.

The Brookings Institution released a report last week that stated that most of the economic gains that poor people made in the 1990s have been reversed over the course of the last eight years. Anyone like to take a guess why?

It's pretty obvious to me that Krugman was right when he wrote his piece on the Great Wealth Transfer. The 1990s saw more people with more of the nation's wealth. The economy was in great shape and there was a definitive shift in the direction our country was heading. People in this country were being re-trained for new jobs and there was a palatable feeling that we were heading one direction: FORWARD.

Then President Bush came into office and the more people having more money thing went out the fucking window. The people that put Bush in power want LESS people having MORE of the money. In their minds, the 1990s were a stain on America. Think of the horror. Some scumbag in a smelly T Shirt having stocks and having a say in how this country is run? It quite literally sends shivers up and down the spine.

So, over the course of the last eight years, we have seen more money go to the wealthiest people in this country and the gains that many poor communities made in the 90s are forever gone. And, according to the report, have no hope of coming back. Here is a key quote.

Such increases in concentrations of poor people in specific neighborhoods create a kind of self-perpetuating economic segregation.That's because low-income neighborhoods generally have lower-performing schools, less access to good jobs, poorer health outcomes, higher crime rates, and less economic investment.

The last three words are key: less economic investment. The people that own most of the wealth in this country...the ones that really run the show....the top 1 percent....the ones that have been President Bush's biggest supporters.....knew that in order to maintain their stranglehold on the direction of this country all they had to do was get the almost as rich to stop investing in these neighborhoods. And that's exactly what has happened.

What I find to be completely hilarious about all of this is that when you here certain people talk about poverty, their child like solution usually is something along these lines:

Buck up and pull yourself up by your boot straps!

To quote Hawkeye Pierce, I think these cretins should pull themselves up by their own jock strap.

If we really want to get these poor communities back in shape again, what we really need to do is: a) Elect a president that is not a pimp for power whores and b) Expand on an old proverb. Remember the one that goes "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day...teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime." I say teach a village to fish and you create an economy. Throwing more money at these communities will help somewhat but what is really needed is an investment of time from successful business leaders around the country to educate folks in these poorer communities. People in this country need to learn how to run a community from an economic standpoint. It has to be the combination of money and time, not just money. From this investment of time comes a framework or a structure that can help solidify the economies of these communities for decades.

Now which presidential candidate has more experience building up communities?

Hmm..let me think about that one for a....millisecond.