wage gap

A lot of the American public feels that the way to fix our educational system is to throw money at it. Yet America spends more on education than any other country and still comes in 25th place in academic performance out of 30 industrialized countries. People used to think that inner cities had bad schools because they had a lower tax base so less money went into the schools. Yet when the state started putting money into the school system the education statistics did not change. Many schools have educational issues because they have bad teachers. In many states after a certain period of time teachers get tenure which prevents them from being fired even if they are not doing their job. So when cuts need to be made many schools follow a policy called "first in first out" where they fire who they have recently hired instead of firing bad teachers. This is an issue for two reasons. First teachers are fired based on seniority instead of performance. Secondly a school would need to fire more new teachers to make up for the salary of firing an old teacher who has been there awhile. Another huge issue is the overhead a lot of schools have. This is often caused by unnecessary administrative positions compensated by high salaries over two hundred thousand per year. Spending money on schools doesn't necessarily make them any better. For example, New Jersey, the state that spends the most money on schools, ranks at the low performing national level for academic performance but not above it. This is proof that our current system is not working.

Defeating Corporate Control

prostitution

Planned Parenthood

A lot of people are against funding for Planned Parenthood. There is a gigantic misconception that the money the government gives to the organization is largely used for abortions. However abortions only account for three percent of Planned Parenthood services. Even though the government is helping pay for some abortions, it is cheaper for them to give pay for an abortion than support with Welfare a mother who cannot afford to take care of her child. The average abortion costs $500 while the cost of raising the average child is over $250,000. Most of what Planned Parenthood does is to provide contraception. This for the most part that is considered non controversial. Contraception helps both sides because it prevents unwanted pregnancies so the decision to have an abortion does not need to be made. Planned Parenthood also focuses on educating children. Education and contraception are the cheapest and most effective ways to prevent unwanted pregnancy. We cannot cut funding to Planned Parenthood; too many people rely on its services. One in three women has used Planned Parenthood's services before. This program is too important to be cut.

cheap food

People in this country often think that if somebody is overweight it is their fault for having no will power. They do not think to consider how economics affects obesity. This is why poor people are more likely to be obese. A teenager whose family is poor is fifty-percent more likely to be obese compared to a teenager who is from a middle or upper class family. Due to the way our food system is set up, it is cheaper for a family to buy a bag of chips than a head of lettuce. So parents who do not have a lot of money will need to feed their kid unhealthy food. Also many inner cities do not have grocery stores so they end up purchasing all their food through convenience stores. As a result poor people often end up paying more for food than the rich or the middle class.

Also the food that's cheaper has been treated with pesticides and various other chemicals. Although there are no health issues with pesticides so far, they may cause health risks in the future.

There have been massive food scares throughout the industry. Normally people people who have money are able to avoid the risks that cause these scares. For example, corn fed beef (which is cheaper than grass fed beef) has been vulnerable to E. Coli breakouts. If a corn fed cow is fed grass within three weeks,85% of its E. Coli would be disappear from its gut. However, farmers continue to use corn feed because it is cheaper. So the economics behind our food system causes health issues.