PeakTrader.com

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PeakTrader:

The article states: “…religious freedom…the fact that the US separation of church and state was extraordinary and almost incredible at the time…and the other fact that the US is much more religious than other rich countries.”

I think, many people discount the morality in religion that contributes to success.

For example, “The “Success Sequence:” Graduate from high school, get a job, get married, and then have babies.

“Children who are raised in broken families are far more likely to drop out of high school, use drugs, commit violent crimes, have children outside of marriage, develop mental health problems, become homeless, drop out of the labor force, go on welfare, and experience poverty.

Indeed, the poverty rate for single-parent families is almost six-times the rate for married-couple families.

“The best anti-poverty program for children is a stable, intact family,” according to former Clinton administration officials William Galston and Elaine Kamarck.

More than 40 percent of all births today are out-of-wedlock. America has the highest divorce rate in the Western world. By the age of eighteen, over half of American children have lived apart from their fathers for a significant portion of their childhood.”

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Religion Among Americans Hits Low Point, As More People Say They Have No Religious Affiliation: Report
03/14/2013

“40 percent of liberals claim they have no religion, compared to just 9 percent of conservatives.”

My comment: Maybe, that’s why liberals feel the need, more than conservatives, for more spending on poverty.

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“In 1965, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then an Assistant Secretary of Labor, warned that the rising rate of fatherless families among black Americans might soon create a new obstacle to racial progress.

…(in 1991) blunt conclusion came from the Council on Families in America, a group of 17 scholars and family experts — sociologists, economists, lawyers, psychologists, journalists, historians and religious leaders — who span the ideological spectrum.

“The evidence is strong and growing,” they wrote, “that the current generation of children and youth is the first in our nation’s history to be less well-off — psychologically, socially, economically and morally — than their parents were at the same age.”

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/27/weekinreview/formative-years-seen-heard-even-worried-about.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

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Dan, the Clinton Administration proposed tax credits for couples with children, and other programs, to provide incentives to keep marriages intact, at least longer.

For example, should taxpayers, or the government, pick-up the tab for broken families, and support women and children, when it’s the father’s responsibility?

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The article states: ” I don’t think any religious beliefs are valid (I’m an atheist). But I don’t think atheism is valid — I have no proof that there is no God and no doubt that there is no God.”

Economics, which evolved as a branch of moral philosophy, at least in the U.K. and the U.S., can be viewed as a religion.

Everything in economics fits together perfectly, in a giant multidimensional puzzle, with no contradictions.

Of course, no economist has the capacity to fully understand economics, through a sound general equilibrium model, because humans don’t have the capacity to think in hundreds of major dimensions, simultaneously.

However, they can put together partial equilibrium models, input-output models, optimization models, contemporaneous models, etc. for a crude understanding, how forces interrelate (in mathematical models) and interact (in empirical models).

Economics, for the most part, is an invisible science, like mathematics, and unlike physical sciences, although both invisible and physical sciences are valid.

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And, we don’t have the capacity to understand what is God. However, we know there’s structure within, and perhaps outside, the universe, although we know little about it, and its extent.

Moreover, I may add, a moral structure is included.

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Jack, the U.S. is the land of opportunity. Poverty is a matter of choices, not destiny.

For example, many poor Asians, who could barely speak english when they immigrated to the U.S., not only lifted themselves out of poverty, quickly, they became successful.

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Joel, you don’t know what you’re talking about.

An individual in the U.S. earning $10 an hour at a full-time job isn’t defined as living in poverty by the government.

In five years, and with no additional education, he could be earning $15 an hour, just based on seniority, if he keeps his job (and also gains valuable experience).

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Mike, you seem to have no concept of ability. No wonder you’re shoveling in stalls.

The country would be better off with more Americans creating more wealth. A million billionaires is better than a thousand billionaires.

Creating wealth is not a zero sum game. It creates growth, to improve a country’s standard of living.

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