Why are the drop out rates so high - look at the neighborhood, and your answer is highly visible if you care not to deny and blind yourself from the truths you see.
Hopelessness - WHY, because all people see is a broken down area, closed business, and nothing of new innovation, nor do they see even basic upkeep and maintained appearance even of their schools - they see nothing but closed down factories that dominate the landscape- and their reality shows them what? a future maybe as a factory line assembly worker, cutting lawns, or working in a fast food establishment, or maybe a job at wal mart. To kids, they don't see a need where that requires any improved education. these jobs seek mostly a body, that can move its arms and legs. Media shows them the same, nothing but reality shows, either of overly rich people with too much money playing ego games on national television, laugh a minute skit shows, or movies about murder, mayhem, robbery, theft and corruptions by every means imaginable. and when they go out in the streets, the despair of their community, reflects the same things.
The games they play are about grand theft auto, shoot to kill, and attack without mercy, and take what you want by any means available.
This is the America that our system pushes via media, and the neglect to maintain and support communities, this is the result of communities that ignored small enterprise development, and turned itself over to corporate stores, as the marquee of the city, money no longer circulated in communities, small business closed, and the banks left. society forgot, that it was small business that supported the little league teams, and other youth functions, it forgot that it was small business, that gave the youth summer and after school jobs, and it was small business that gave them a sense they could achieve something. and it was small business that had vested interest in the communities of cities.
We have to this date never seen a community survive and thrive without its own small business, the only ones that do, are the communities where the executives of corporations live- and the elite of administrative systems. and the result is the area of the working citizen simply shut down.. "out of business signs, not only meant the business closed, it meant the community closed".. and the result is expanding ghettos.
The more the ghetto expands, to show no sign of hope - drop out rates increased, because they cannot connect the need for education with the imagery of their environment. it does not show symbolism that anything can be accomplished. Now they are impacted with the closure of corporations, and what do they see- the once educated now out looking for jobs, that are not available.
This is the result of our society relying on Big corporation to be the answer all - and we gave up on our communities for this. the few people who are in business. moved to the gated community on the outskirts of town and moved their business to the area of Big Box corporate stores. and they struggle to stay afloat- unable to compete, when we have to community killer business that dominate our commercial atmosphere- if walmart does not get the money, then sam's club gets it.. and the communities suffer more closure. and the result is.. ghettos continue to expand.
How does it impact - first the tax revenue of community circulated dollars diminish, then the how ownership fades, and abandoned properties litter the landscape and that destroys the tax base- which also impacts the school tax, and the arts programs are closed, the cultural literacy programs are closed, then the sport programs are closed, there are no field trips, there are not community professions that come and speak, nor contribute anything to the schools- finally, the state does not even fund the school enough to fix it's lawn or improve its appearance. and the schools itself look like desolate building, that reflect nothing more than a ghetto school that matches the image of ghetto the neighborhood shows.
And the I don't care imagery, translates into the youth, even making their appearance reflect what their environment reflects, which is an I don't care attitude- society is always a product of its environment as a bulk mass, and only few escape this cycle. but the mass of those that can't escape it continues to expand. Parents can barely keep food on the table, so college saving is not even an option to consider, they struggle to get a kid simply to attend basic school, and the kids are despaired because the schools teach at a low level, that they cannot connect to how it can help their condition. Craft classes are gone, arts programs are gone, they have nothing more than basketball, football and maybe soccer if they are in the right neighborhood, they can have a soccer team, but if they are in a deteriorated neighborhood, soccer is not even an option.
They can't get Lawn cutting jobs, because the group of society that would have never cut a lawn 20 years ago, now have multiple truck and have over-taken that option. there are no more neighborhood business, that offer them evening jobs, where they can learn skills, learn how to aspire to greater things, because they closed, and now the only option is big business, which will not hire them, so we all settle for goods made in China- at the expense of small business owners, who made and created and sold things. we don't even have repair shops, because society opted for the "disposable products from China", where every 3 months, just go buy another one, to last 3 more months. and this is conducted in the bigbox stores, that won't pay their parents enough to keep the lawn cut, let along to try to progress in any meaningful way, without working two and 1/2 of these jobs.. and society wonders why there are absentee parents. they can't be parents, only food and shelter providers, with hope they can at least keep the lights and heat on.
Blind yourself to this reality as you choose..but when the ghettos expand to encompass your neighborhood.. maybe only then, will you awaken.
and
It's fast approaching with the demise of the corporations you placed your life dependency upon.
People became so dependent on corporations, they took their money out of banks where they could manage it themselves, and turned it over to corporate investment businesses - they took their money from investing in emerging business in their own community, and gave it to mutual fund and hedge fund managers, they sold out their soul to big corporation as their main savior.. and now reality has shown, not only are their jobs, gone, their pensions are gone and their savings have been made into "0" sums, for an alarming number of citizens. thrusting them back into poverty after a life of work, and what they thought were smart investments, in turning their money over to corporations.
Maybe society will now awaken, and began to invest in their community, build investment pools that deal with their own community, instead of nation investment firms which pay their operations multi million of dollars a year, and send out to the investor checks for a few hundred dollars, which is heavily taxed into being "0" gain. only to result every 8-10 years, to be a crashed and bankrupt company and wipe out all their assumed gains. and they again end up with "0" sum ...
today.. we have many people starting over at near the age of 55, unable to compete for jobs, when the employers only want to hire people from the age of 23-48.. anyone over 48 is considered more a liability than an asset. because they are aware of what benefits are, and the corporations of today, do not want people who care about benefits. so the nation canceled pension programs, and now, you get a 401K, which locks up your money for institutional usage, and penalize you when you need it, or tax it away if you want to use it for anything else.
but people forgot, they can save their own money, and they can do it in commodities that give them access without penalty. buy a saving bond, for 25 dollars you get 50 dollars, and you only have to hold it for 6 years. but you can cash it in when and as needed. No 401K will give you that option, to manage and control your own money. You have no control over the companies they invest in, and the people who gain are the commodities traders, not the actual investor. Such programs are good for people who make and earn a disposable % of income, they can afford the plan, and they can afford the penalty, or the interest they pay to use their money, the average working person cannot . People must learn to think, and stop relying on corporations, because corporations now function like plantations of the old slave days, and everyone knows a plantation was not designed to allow its workers to gain a living wage, nor to accumulate equity.
see it any way you choose, that suits your life.. but the main point is.. BECOME AGAIN, PEOPLE WHO LEARN TO THINK, we have become a society that refuse to think, we look for corporations that do it for us.
Can you be sure you won't get a "Pink Slip"
We see a cycle of continually eroding communities- and the worst they look, the more hopeless the concept becomes and people back away from it because they are overwhelmed at the decay. Result is 'neglected interest feeds continued deterioration' and we simply become more in the production as a city of an expanding ghetto, than one that is showing progressive community development. When that happens. then the denial for funding for any commerce is nearly a guarantee of end result. so its a self defeating program as it currently exist in such categories. and community after community is written off.. and the only push it gets, is when a few charitable entities come and do a few token homes in the area , which results to look like an out of place creation in the midist of decay.
Progressive involvement in being the catalysis, is to design the program - which puts people to work, improves the condition and appearance of the neighborhood, restores value to the property, and circulates those funds within our city and the citizenry and other small business. and not having it - a massive fund to support home improvement loans, and provide employment, while it fixes its areas, afford small business -curb appeal funding, as a business image improvement loan. this puts construction people to work. and the result is the image of the neighborhood changes.
I know people don't like candid terms, but as a society and as a city and as a nation- we can't talk about this stuff in patronizing terms as if we have to protect the power people's ego more than be concerned about the squalor that is engulfing our city. there are many many countless youths future which is the resulting damage of the present cycle and process.
Kids don't progress when their whole community becomes a continual declining ghetto - they do just what people do.. and that is; they become a product of their environment. they live with nothing that resembles hope, they see despair and nothing improved, and in the middle of the squalor, up pops a park with bright color toys in it, and they are afraid to go there, because the trek to the park becomes a element the parents don't feel comfortable to allow their kids to go to it.. so it becomes more a sight to drive by and look at, than something that is actually engaged. Its a stark reminder that, the parks looks better than their own street, they live on, or the house they live in. and that in and of itself does not promote positive confidence, nor does it improve the community uplift.
We have more park projects in the Stimulus bill, and no programs to fund home improvements backed funding. the irrational of that is astounding. When the community and it's housing is improved, the sense of a more safe community develops. "Remember the "BROKEN WINDOWS" program in New York.. it stated, that when the community has broken windows, then the invitation of crime is increased, because the imagery shows despair; and despair in the environments image is a promotion of increased crime. any people, regardless of race, or culture - when their environment shows nothing but broken down homes, closed business, and unkept school facilities, and streets with pot holes and every other result of neglect- crime will increase, as despair is heighten, just in a walk to a corner store- the area become a detriment to itself- thus becoming written off, for any form of investment or progressive input. they become nothing but areas ripe for news fodder, which further decimate the area by the imagery it depicts to project.
but currently my primary focus now is about - community based commerce.. economic opportunity and the means of creating small business - because it is an essential component of Community Development- it is essential to promoting Economic Development, surely both and all go hand in hand. and it must be a 360 degree program.. but .. the interest and patience of people to engage the concepts is the greatest deterrent to addressing the matter. One department does not work with the other and they are more secular than cross platform bi-laterally engaging.
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