Project: Urban Poverty and a Community-Based Solution

Problem:

Inner city Baltimore is characterized as an area of extreme poverty, crime, and a distinct lack of opportunity. More houses are condemned than inhabited, people live far below the poverty line, and many drop out of education and resort to crime due to a lack of other opportunities. Incarceration for minor offenses exacerbates this problem, as even after serving time they are unable to find useful work that pays a living wage. This cycle of poverty, under-education, crime, and violence undermines the thousands of underprivileged children, teenagers, and adults who are unable to extricate themselves from their situation.

Small businesses moving into the community often employ people from outside the community, and only serve to remove what little money there is from the local economy. Crime and other factors increase the cost of doing business locally, and solutions based on individuals outside the community quickly shutter in the face of these difficult challenges.

 

Here’s my proposal.

Concept:

Community crowd-funded co-op Brewery

Response from Sarbanes on TPP Protest

Below is the email I got from Congressman Sarbanes as a response to my objections on the heinous TPP, the next vehicle for MAFIAA IP protectionism.
Based on his response, I probably won't be voting for him next election. Analysis to follow...

Tax Code Revolution!

Taxes are tricky, messy, bastardized things. Their inherently mongreloid nature leaves them more misshapen than a Boris Karloff monster and more random than a platypus. So what happens when you start throwing different ideas around? My uncle pitched me his ideas for tax reform and asked for my opinion. We had the following exchange that I invite everyone to join in on.

(note: since my internet is down at the moment, copy pasta will have to do for now. I'll edit later for clarity, grammar, etc.)

(note the 2nd: though I am an analyst, I don't work with tax policy directly. Feel free to point out any errors, alternative theories, etc.)

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Hi Isaac,
Listening to today's news, I realized that I have long been formulating my own ideas about taxes--so I decided to write them down. You're the economist in the family, so I'm sending you my tax plan. Are the attached ideas crazy?
Uncle Steve

Start of the MPAA Offensive

You gotta love people for bringing their newest article to show that "SEE! THIS COMMUNIST CANDIDATE REALLY WORSHIPS SATAN!!" or that the Liberals want to destroy the United States (uh, they live here, too...) or that the conservatives are capitalist money-draculas looking to suck the bones dry of the nations blue collar workers.

Below is an exchange that tipped off the fact that the Pro-SOPA/PIPA/ACTA crowd might be getting warmed up after the White House disowned the legislation (though 'dead,' we can still look forward to a vampiric or zombie resurrection in the near future). After leaving in a huff and taking all their toys home, it looks like the MAFIAA is deciding to press home field advantage through it's media outlets:

The email below was sent by my father - it's clearly a chain letter based on the specific alterations in formatting "for emphasis" that most people wouldn't bother with. One has to wonder who seeds this kind of stuff...
Anyhow, my edited response/analysis lies below that.