David Brooks, "What Is Your Purpose?": I'm More Interested to Hear From the Rioters in Baltimore

David Brook begins his latest New York Times op-ed entitled "What Is Your Purpose?" by observing:

"Every reflective person sooner or later faces certain questions: What is the purpose of my life? How do I find a moral compass so I can tell right from wrong? What should I do day by day to feel fulfillment and deep joy?"

Toward the end of his opinion piece, Brooks invites readers to send him their answers to the following questions:

"Do you think you have found the purpose to your life, professional or otherwise? If so, how did you find it? Was there a person, experience or book or sermon that decisively helped you get there?"

Do I plan to share my views with readers of the Times? What? You heard a noise? Yes, that's me trying to contain a guffaw as I contemplate the some 100,000 rockets supplied by Iran to Hezbollah in Lebanon, which are now aimed at my home. You see, I'm not a "reflective person." That, or I'm preoccupied with survival, which is possibly also a purpose in life.

Having said that, I would be curious to know what the rioters in Balimore have to say in response to Brooks's queries. A pity he can't provide us with their responses.

Paul Krugman, "Race, Class and Neglect": Provide Training for Which Jobs?

Let's take a trip back in time, four months to be precise. In a January 4, 2015 New York Times op-ed entitled "Presidents and the Economy," Paul Krugman concluded:

"So is the president responsible for the accelerating recovery? No. Can we nonetheless say that we’re doing better than we would be if the other party held the White House? Yes. Do those who were blaming Mr. Obama for all our economic ills now look like knaves and fools? Yes, they do. And that’s because they are."

Ah yes, an "accelerating recovery." How sweet it all looked back then!

But now, fast forward to the present. As reported yesterday in a CNNMoney article entitled "America's capsizing economy: Can it right the ship?" by By Patrick Gillespie:

"April was rough all around. It started with news that the economy only added 126,000 jobs in March, and previous months of job gains were revised down. Retail sales for March arrived in mid-April and they were sluggish.

Then last week we learned that America's economic growth was next to nothing, a mere 0.2% in the first quarter. Maybe the worst news about the growth: Businesses haven't been investing in themselves this year.

The newest projections for economic growth published by the Atlanta Fed show this spring could be disappointing too -- less than 1%."

Or stated in the vernacular, the US economy sucks, which bring us to the rioting in Baltimore. In his latest New York Times op-ed entitled "Race, Class and Neglect," Paul Krugman today writes:

"[T]he riots in Baltimore, destructive as they are, have served at least one useful purpose: drawing attention to the grotesque inequalities that poison the lives of too many Americans.

. . . .

Lagging wages — actually declining in real terms for half of working men — and work instability have been followed by sharp declines in marriage, rising births out of wedlock, and more.

. . . .

The poor don’t need lectures on morality, they need more resources — which we can afford to provide — and better economic opportunities, which we can also afford to provide through everything from training and subsidies to higher minimum wages. Baltimore, and America, don’t have to be as unjust as they are."

It's a 55-minute drive from the White House to Baltimore. Obama didn't bother to undertake the journey.

Cure the malaise with training, subsidies and higher minimum wages? US manufacturing is almost certain to be harmed by Obama's Trans-Pacific Partnership with an anticipated decline in the wages of non-college-educated workers. And this leads to my next question: Which jobs should persons living in America's inner cities be trained for? Go ahead and tell us, Paul! I'm all ears!

David Brooks, "The Nature of Poverty": Actually, Jon Stewart Lied

In his latest New York Times op-ed entitled "The Nature of Poverty," David Brooks writes about the rioting in Baltimore:

"Lately it seems as though every few months there’s another urban riot and the nation turns its attention to urban poverty. And in the midst of every storm, there are people crying out that we should finally get serious about this issue. This time it was Jon Stewart who spoke for many when he said: 'And you just wonder sometimes if we’re spending a trillion dollars to rebuild Afghanistan’s schools, like, we can’t build a little taste down Baltimore way. Like is that what’s really going on?'

The audience applauded loudly, and it’s a nice sentiment, but it’s not really relevant."

Indeed, it was a "nice," crowd-pleasing sentiment on Stewart's part, but it was also a lie. As reported by Glenn Kessler in a Washington Post "Fact Checker" column entitled "Nope, Jon Stewart, $1 trillion wasn’t spent on Afghanistan schools at the expense of Baltimore.":

"Since 2002, Congress has appropriated $104 billion for Afghanistan relief and reconstruction, according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). A lot of this funding went to bolstering the Afghan military and security forces and fostering better governance.

But Stewart specifically mentioned schools. The numbers are even smaller in that instance. Using USAID’s ForeignAssistance.gov Web site, one can drill down to individual programs in Afghanistan year after year. For basic education in Afghanistan, the number is about $100 million annually. Adding higher education boosts the spending about $30 million a year. For instance, in 2012 and 2013, the total spent on education in Afghanistan was $128.6 million and $115.1 million, respectively.

Now let’s compare that to the federal spending for the city of Baltimore. According to city budget documents, the federal contribution to Baltimore schools was $184.8 million in 2012 and $169.3 million in 2013. (Most of the more than $1.2 billion budget comes from state and county funding sources.)

The contrast was even greater in 2011: $95 million for Afghanistan schools and $265 million for Baltimore schools. That’s because the 2009 stimulus bill bolstered funding for schools for several years.

. . . .

In fact, in a direct comparison of federal spending on Baltimore schools and spending on Afghanistan education, Baltimore easily comes out on top. So, even with allowances for comic effect, Stewart earns Four Pinocchios."

But back now to Brooks, who concludes his op-ed by observing:

"Jane Jacobs once wrote that a healthy neighborhood is like a ballet, a series of intricate interactions in which people are regulating each other and encouraging certain behaviors.

. . . .

Yes, jobs are necessary, but if you live in a neighborhood . . . where half the high school students don’t bother to show up for school on a given day, then the problems go deeper.

The world is waiting for a thinker who can describe poverty through the lens of social psychology. Until the invisible bonds of relationships are repaired, life for too many will be nasty, brutish, solitary and short."

Or stated otherwise, it's not all about money. Rather, it involves the disintegration of social fabric.

A pity that President Obama, who never misses the opportunity to lose himself on the links, can't drive the 55 minutes from the White House to Baltimore to observe for himself the violence and destruction. Effect "change" involving America's inner cities? Now here's an opportunity to truly build a "legacy," but instead, the president is preoccupied with reaching a bogus nuclear agreement with Supreme Leader Khamenei, which will free up $50 billion for Iranian sponsored terror.