Shootie,
Your proposal, while laudable, falls far short of the mark in terms of fairness and equity.
issue every low income, welfare, unemployed, under employed, suppressed minority person a computer and internet access
You fail to mention that it should be fast Internet access, preferably a T1 line but at the least a cable modem or DSL line. How can they be expected to get a fair shot if they have slower access than somebody else? Also, I assume that your definition of "suppressed minority" excludes Asian-Americans, since they will succeed anyway and so are not entitled to government help and, quite to the contrary, should willingly give up their slots to less qualified members of other "groups" which are (a) less successful; and (b) more likely to vote for Democrats.
filtered for games, gambling and porn sites
Gee, that's not fair, the rich get to look at those sites, why not allow access to those who society has so cruelly trampled upon? In fact, to encourage the target groups to overcome their unfamiliarity with the tools of progress, the computers should be programmed to initially default to games, gambling and porn sites for the first 30 days. Don't want these fine machines gathering dust, now do we?
deduct the cost directly from any income they receive regardless of circumstances, over a 3 to 5 year period
Gee, that reeks of "unfairness" too. I say we offer them a tax credit equivalent to the cost of the computer to encourage them to use it more. Also avoids the argument that the cost deduction would serve as a "disincentive" to work (not to be confused with the disincentive to work caused by excessive marginal rates of taxation).
and then just stand back.
Stand waaaaayyyyyyy back ..... |
