title: obama wont vote with america at the un
text: if government can truly alleviate poverty why have leftist policies only made it worse november   thomas sowell 
  the political left keeps announcing as if it is a new breakthrough discovery of theirs that life is unfair 
  have they never read thomas grays elegy written in a country churchyard more than two and a half centuries ago what about economic historian david s landes statement the world has never been a level playing field 
  in the joint autobiography of milton friedman and his wife rose they say everywhere in the world there are gross inequities of income and wealth they offend most of us few can fail to be moved by the contrast between the luxury enjoyed by some and the grinding poverty suffered by others 
  moreover professor friedman left behind a foundation dedicated to promoting school choice so that disadvantaged children could get a better education for a better chance in life 
  what is it that the political left is saying that they think is so new such a breakthrough and such a necessity for progress more important what test of evidence  if any  have they ever subjected their notions to 
  no one has presented the social vision of the left more often than nicholas kristof of the new york times  and no one has been more certain that those who do not happen to share his vision just dont get it as he has repeatedly declared 
  mr kristofs essay growing up poor in america in the october th new york times is a classic example of the mindset of the left 
  it begins with the story of a poor black teenager in arkansas being raised by a single mom sometimes he goes hungry and his home does not have even one book but it does have television sets with huge screens and apparently there is money enough to buy marijuana 
  surely we can all agree that this young fellow has very unpromising future prospects ahead of him and that this is a human tragedy the circumstances of his life are unfair to him and none of us would want to be born into such circumstances moreover he is just one of many who are brought up in a setting that is full of dangers and with a low probability of improvement 
  but that is not enough for mr kristof or for the political left in general of such youngsters he says as a society we fail them long before they fail us 
  whoa just when did society make the decisions and engage in the actions that have led to this teenager being in the bad situation he is in and just when did society acquire either the omniscience or the omnipotence to prevent it 
  when the left says society they usually mean government that is apparently what society means in this case for kristof laments that this teenager is the kind of person whom americas presidential candidates just dont talk about 
  if the left chooses to believe that government intervention is the answer to such tragedies that is their right but if they expect the rest of us to share that belief surely they could subject that belief to some empirical test but we can however 
  the s were the triumphant decade of those who wanted government intervention to solve what they called social problems how did that work out what were things like before this social vision triumphed and what were things like afterwards 
  homicide victimization rates among black males were going down substantially in the s and the s but homicide victimization rates reversed and skyrocketed in the s wiping out all the progress of the two previous decades 
  when the s began most black children were born into families with both a mother and a father after the great welfare state expansion during the s most black children were born to a single mother like the youngster in arkansas today 
  kristofs essay also mentions a teenage girl who is a single mother and suggests that sex education could have prevented her from getting pregnant teenage pregnancy was going down  repeat down  during the s it reversed and shot up after the s began bringing the sex education vision into schools across the country 
  very similar trends occurred in england after very similar visions and policies also triumphed there in the s perhaps it is the left that just doesnt get it  or cannot face the hard fact that its own vision and policies worsened the very things they claimed would be made better