New Hope For The Slow Learner

 

The American population is made up of over 40 million people that unfortunately have an IQ between 70 and 85, they are called slow learners, it is a term that is used for those with a low mental ability. Rarely do they have the skills to be successful in school or in general society. Most of them become school dropouts and later have major social problems. Due to today’s greater demand on mental efficiency this group is having an almost impossible challenge to overcome. If America is to maintain its image as being the most humane society we have to be able to make life more comfortable for those without normal mental abilities. Life skills coaching combined with easily accessed welfare payments at this moment seems to be the only way to deal with this problem. But that isn’t the solution because slow learners are still creating social problems and causing injuries to themselves and others.

Work on a small farm can be taught to any person that is willing to learn. It does not require more than an elementary education. The work is routine and even a slow learner could master it with little instruction. A farm worker does not need to depend on the government to survive. Housing and food is always available on a farm. Small farm work would be the perfect job for a person who has major social problems in an urban environment.

The creation of a few million small farms that were privately owned will give the slow learner a chance to become an independent and happy person. It would be a great humanitarian achievement. No longer would there be a need for government welfare checks for the confused and disfranchised. The prisons would be emptied, welfare mothers and illegal drug abusers would be given a chance to start a new and healthy life. With a great way of living the towns around the farms would have recreation and shopping areas that would be alive with workers on a well deserved break. There is no doubt that the quality of life in the whole nation would be greatly improved.

This dream can become a reality if the small farms would be given a chance to become profitable. At the present moment government handouts to the environmentally damaging giant farms have destroyed profit opportunities for the small farmer. Without those handouts and special trade advantages the Mega-Farms would be out of business. They would be quickly replaced by millions of small farms. Farm products will then be of a higher quality and the natural health of our environment would be restored. All this will happen as soon as more people realize the urgent need for returning the small farm to the nation.

melpol

 

 

Sharing Your Toilet Saves You Money

The prices of gas and food keep rising and there is little left over for other things. The landlord keeps staring and you know he will shortly ask for a big raise in rent. His costs have also been rising and you are the answer to his problems. You just about meet your rent costs and are scared.  The boss has just given you a twenty dollar raise but that doesn’t even pay for added gas expenses. Threats of homelessness hovers over you like a dark cloud. There is no place to hide from your problems. But flexibility will come to the rescue. It has always been a savior.

 

Privacy costs money. Using the toilet and shower for one person is an expensive habit. If you want to cut costs remove your toilet door and you will find the solution. The more people that share your toilet the cheaper will be your expenses. With an agreement among the users, a toilet and shower is capable of comfortably handling over one hundred people in a twenty four hour period. There is no reason that a person has to use a shower for more than ten minutes. Toilet use is variable but one toilet has the capacity to service at least twenty people an hour.

 

A large air mattress costs around fifty dollars. Four people can squeeze into one. Ten mattresses can easily fit into the smallest apartment. That equals forty roommates. The only thing lost is privacy. But privacy is not needed in hard times.

 

Refrigeration and lighting wastes money and is not necessary for people on a tight budget. The cavemen survived before heating or artificial lighting was known and so can you. The sun provides all the no cost lighting you need. Heated apartments are not important if winter coats are available. Inexpensive sardines for protein and vitamin loaded rotten fruit will keep you healthy. They both don’t require refrigeration.

 

Flexibility can be our savior because with it we can survive in the hardest of times. The Asians made it their wisdom. They dealt with reality and never expected anything more. China has over a billion people because of this wisdom. We in the West should learn from them. The first thing we should give up is our need for physical privacy. The place to start is by giving up our exclusive use of the toilet. If we do the high costs of space will disappear and none of us will fear being homeless.

melpol

 

They Need To Share Your Food

There is a serious development that concerns not only hungry people but all of us. Food is becoming too expensive and food riots are spreading. There were tortilla riots in Mexico when the price of grain became unaffordable which can happen again. Most countries have been able to feed their own but there is a fear that the millions of the unfed will come across borders to eat. If this happens those with food will battle to keep it from the hungry. Supermarkets will be forced to place armed guards in front of their doors and refrigerators will be padlocked. There are food riots going on at the present time in Haiti where the government was overthrown. Nobody can predict tomorrows costs of grain or rice. Many say it will double in price in the coming months.

Over a billion Chinese people are now eating meat products that are grain fed. This is a result of an increase in their standard of living. They grow very little grain so more than ninety percent of all meat eaten in China is imported. This is one of the causes of the shortage of world wide grain. The Chinese people have a right to eat as much meat as they can afford. It would be ridiculous to ask them to curb their appetites for the sake of the hungry in other countries. We must look elsewhere for a solution.

The rising price of oil is the main cause of rising grain costs. Harvesters and trucks that use oil have to pass on added expenses. A loaf of bread cannot be sold for one dollar when it costs two to produce. The hungry must eat but if they cant afford to buy bread who will pay to feed them? The best solution is to lower oil prices which will bring down the costs of grain production. This would bring to a halt world wide hunger.

There have been many famines where millions have starved to death. The Ukraine suffered a man made famine less than seventy five years ago where over a million died of hunger. But in the age of worldwide news coverage this type of tragedy would be hard to accept. Many people would feel guilty watching a television newscast showing people fighting over a bag of rice. But most would just go on eating and be happy that their refrigerator was well stocked. The big question is: Would you be willing to share your food with the worlds hungry? If the answer is “NO” we will have to put a padlock on our fridge.

melpol

 

My Battle Against Cigarette Butts

Every sidewalk and gutter is full of cigarette butts. Our parks and forests are littered with trash and the worst kind is cigarette butts. We stand helplessly buy and watch people throw them out car windows or just flip them on the sidewalk. But most of us are not aware of the real danger that cigarette butts pose..

A lit cigarette can ignite a forest fire
Cigarette butts can take 25 years to break down due to cellulose acetate in the filters
Butts can release toxic substances including arsenic, cadmium and lead into water as they breakdown
Animals sometimes mistake cigarettes for food which can give them digestive problems.

Besides that, cigarette butts are an eyesore.

I am retired and have chosen to spend my last years doing something useful for the country that was so good to me. Every morning I go out into the streets with two burlap bags and a pick. I don’t return until those two bags are filled with cigarette butts. Some times it is a twelve hour day and I never take a rest. Sunday I spend examining the sidewalks and gutters preparing myself for the job that has to be done the next day. When I return home I am happy to know that my day was spent helping to make my city a cleaner place.

There is only one way to attack the problem and clean up the environment and that is to have a labor force of men and women who will go through the sidewalks, gutters and parks picking up those disgusting cigarette butts. The problem is that it would take millions of hands to pick up the more than a trillion butts that are discarded each year. We are in luck because there is a labor force willing to do the job.. There are millions of people that have lots of time available to pick up those butts. All the government has to do is purchase each sack of butts that is turned in. It wont be a much different system than the one used to pick up cans.

Until something is done by the government to rid the streets and sidewalks of those nasty looking butts I will continue doing the job by myself. What frustrates me is that there are more cigarette butts in front of my house than when I started six years ago. I suspect that my neighbors are throwing them there in an attempt to drive me insane.

Melpol http://www.associatedcontent.com/melpol