WHERE ARE THE SOLUTIONS

I was reading an article today in the Hartford Courant about poverty in Connecticut. It quoted statistics that were and are troubling:

“While the median household income in the state rose to $63,422, about 275,000 residents were living below the federal poverty level, and about 325,000 had no health insurance, according to U.S. Census data released Tuesday. Among the uninsured were 49,000 children under age 18.”
From the Hartford Courant.

Something is wrong with a state that has these kinds of numbers associated with kids and Presidential candidates coming here to pick the pockets of the Ned Lamonts of Fairfield county. No one is truly addressing the root causes of poverty in this state. It is not that taxes are so high that business men ( like the aforementioned Mr. Lamont) cannot provide jobs its because businessmen ( like the aforementioned Mr. Lamont) pay lousy wages to those people they have on the payroll.

Is it so hard to have the Governor or Mayor Destefano or the absent Senator Chris Dodd push for a $10.00 minimum wage in this state? This will only “harm” businesses that never had a chance to begin with. It will not be the end of the world nor will it be the end of poverty in this state but it will help. Other solutions are mandatory job training tied to state benefits, child day care and low interest loans for the purchase of autos so that people locked in a rural or inner city can travel to job opportunities outside of their immediate area without being slaves to bus schedules.

These are solutions and we have the money in this state to do these things without raising taxes. We need to cut wasteful spending and focus on our people as a resource. When a society as wealthy as Connecticut fails to do this then it has failed as a society. When a society as wealthy as Connecticut has poor children then it is a poor society. Think about it.