Many of the Indian reservations scattered across America's heartland are living examples of the demoralizing effects of long-term government oversight.
From Townhall Magazine's EXCLUSIVE November feature "An America Apart":
Although they often pass by the national consciousness largely unnoticed, American Indian reservations are bastions of poverty lost amid a country of prosperity. Many of America's "First Nations" exist in the sort of substandard living conditions that might be expected in a Third World nation, but never in America; they remain tragic examples of the wretched results of long-term government "help."
Lately, President Barack Obama and his administration have been attempting to fix the battered U.S. economy with the same type of intrusive, big-government policies that have kept American Indians poor, isolated and degraded for almost two centuries. Despite many liberals' insistence that extended unemployment benefits, welfare checks, increased regulation and government-sponsored infrastructure projects are viable solutions that can help to lift people out of poverty, evidence to the contrary is littered across the American landscape on federally recognized Indian reservations. ...
While the U.S. Census Bureau's data is widely considered inaccurate, the 2000 Census estimated that approximately 1 million people live on America's 310 Indian reservations. There are more than 20 federal departments and agencies with specific programs dedicated to helping "Native Americans," but the reservation residents have the highest unemployment, poverty and disease rate of any ethnic group in the country, as well as the lowest life expectancy and median income.
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Why the terrible disconnect? ...
Read more of Erika Johnsen's report in the November issue of Townhall Magazine, including:
- -- why Indian reservations lack two key components to a healthy, functioning economy: secure private property rights and a reliable rule of law
- -- an Indian reservation under government control versus a more independent reservation
- -- how Obama's policies are failing to answer the problems on Indian reservations
Order Townhall Magazine today to get the full report in the November issue.
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