Policy reforms necessary to fix poverty in Duluth
Ryan Lyk
Issue date: 2/3/10 Section: Opinion
One way to deal with poverty is through politics. Our state needs to make some reforms. Seifert has been campaigning for reforms in the past few months, stating that bringing common sense into our policies will keep us from making irrational, thoughtless, careless and irresponsible decisions that our state legislature has been making for the past decade.
With common sense in mind, it is clear that our state needs to reform its business tax policies to allow our businesses to grow and open up jobs in Duluth. After all, the highest rates of men and women living in poverty in Duluth are ages 18 to 24, and being in that range myself, I would love for that to change. Duluth is on the outskirts of the state, and although it is a medium-sized city, it still has massive spending policies that are not being supported financially. Unless this changes along with state-level reform, Duluth will continue to be one of the poorest areas in the state.
After the state decides to actually let our economy grow, we will see improvements, but help will always be needed. The common misconception about a free-market system is that no aid will be given to individuals. There are multiple charities and volunteer organizations that give money, food, supplies and help to those in need daily. These are private charities that manage to help people much better than the government. As long as people keep donating, aid will be continuously given. Add this with a thriving economy and suddenly problems can be fixed, but if Duluth and Minnesota as a whole continue this path of bad policy, nothing will ever get fixed.
We are walking down a slippery slope of social spending dependence and the stronger that dependence, the harder it is to break.
With common sense in mind, it is clear that our state needs to reform its business tax policies to allow our businesses to grow and open up jobs in Duluth. After all, the highest rates of men and women living in poverty in Duluth are ages 18 to 24, and being in that range myself, I would love for that to change. Duluth is on the outskirts of the state, and although it is a medium-sized city, it still has massive spending policies that are not being supported financially. Unless this changes along with state-level reform, Duluth will continue to be one of the poorest areas in the state.
After the state decides to actually let our economy grow, we will see improvements, but help will always be needed. The common misconception about a free-market system is that no aid will be given to individuals. There are multiple charities and volunteer organizations that give money, food, supplies and help to those in need daily. These are private charities that manage to help people much better than the government. As long as people keep donating, aid will be continuously given. Add this with a thriving economy and suddenly problems can be fixed, but if Duluth and Minnesota as a whole continue this path of bad policy, nothing will ever get fixed.
We are walking down a slippery slope of social spending dependence and the stronger that dependence, the harder it is to break.
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Alison
posted 2/10/10 @ 11:24 AM CST
Mentioning Northwest as a business that is leaving Minnesota is an ill-fitting argument. Northwest has been mired down for years and failed as a company. (Continued…)
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