The difference is that people really didn't care about the poor or pay them much heed before Johnson and the Great Society. "The Other America" i think the book was called.

The problem with education isn't lack of funding

If you want to understand why America has a failing education system consider the following story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/09/opinion/sunday/kristof-profiting-from-a-childs-illiteracy.html?ref=opinion&_r=2&#h[]

"... parents here in Appalachian hill country pulling their children out of literacy classes. Moms and dads fear that if kids learn to read, they are less likely to qualify for a monthly check for having an intellectual disability."

Essentially, the welfare system is set up to reward and subsidize failure, and yet supporters of this moronic system are still surprised that kids are failing.

Thats like asking what happens when you take candy away from a three year old. It would result in a lot of temper tantrums... Probably better to just let the three year have the candy... Deal with the problem another day...

Thats a terrible graph, because money is the problem.  Its funny that your graph starts in the 70s because that is the decade that the government started imposing regulations on schools.  They demanded a special education program and said they would fund half but only funded 10%.  Demanded kids had to stay in school till a certain age.  Stuff like that.  The scores is also stupid as tests have evolved and become more demanding over the years.  If a kid back then took a test from today, they would do a lot worse.

basically, the schools today have to do a lot more then they had to.  I am a school teacher and did you know almost half our budget goes just to special education?  Not saying we should do away with special education, it is valuable, but it has never been properly paid for...

From my understanding, I think you have it backwards ... Take away a calculator and have your best high-school math student do a test from the 1950s, I'm positive he will struggle to get a passing mark; and probably won't come close to finishing the test in time. Without a calculator students can't do basic arithmitec, without a word processor students can't write an essay, and without the internet students can't write a basic research paper anymore.

With that said, I think the primary problems with the school system is lack of discipline and lack of accountability of students; and the protection of incompetent teachers by the union.

I would argue it is much more like asking "what happens when you stop enabling a crack addict" ... certainly there will be a temper tantrum but you will make it far more likely that they will "hit rock bottom" and actually question the decisions that are ruining their lives.

Actually, as a percentage of GDP our military spending isn't so bad.  Espiecally when you consider it brings back returns in the form of military sales to other countries.

I don't think companies are "biding their time" but our military spending in a lot of ways actually benefits us quite a bit.  The sad part is, cuts in military funding always seem to target the helpful programs like research and not the bullshit.

If you suggest killing welfare without anything else changing, you're going to have a lot of people starving to death.

First of all, you need to introduce free markets into the likes of food, healthcare, mortgages, to massively reduce prices in these areas. You then need to ramp up the drive for employment by reducing the costs: cutting regulations, taxes, and minimum wage.

This will allow wages to fall to the market clearing rate, as well as having other costs falling to allow for an increase in the standard of living on low-income earners.

By this point, you could cut welfare with very little short term pain.

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If you were to eliminate welfare now with none of this, it'd still be better in the long run. But I will accept it would have a large cost in the short term.

This country needs to cut everything... But we won't.

and now they are not civilized any more