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'New South' or 'New U.S.'? | 23 comments (23 topical)
Re: 'New South' or 'New U.S.'? (none / 0) (#21)
by Ernesto Del Mundo on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:03:53 PM EST
because there IS a never ending spiral of poverty for some and I think it stems from slavery and never really recovering from it.
Well you are correct but as far as I can tell, for the wrong reasons. Try thinking of it this way: Wealth in the U.S. is mostly inherited, not earned. Slavery built enormous wealth for the slaveholders that was passed down from generation to generation. The descendents of the slaves never saw any of it. In fact, slavery was NOT replaced by government programs to help the freed slaves, but by sharecropping and other exploitative arrangements that were not much better than slavery. The legacy of the plantation system still exists to this day, in the uneven distribution of wealth and resources to acquire wealth. The government programs did not begin until a hundred years after slavery ended, and have mostly been too little, too late. But the deeper question is...should the attainment of individual wealth be the overall goal in the first place, rather than the betterment of society as a whole?

'New South' or 'New U.S.'? | 23 comments (23 topical)

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