- The current system for legal aid to the poor is broken. It is broken and beaten. It will not be working for very long in its current state, anyways, and then it will shatter into a million pieces. Once this has happened, the legal aid will be nonexistent and thus lead to the multitudes of poor Americans to roam around the streets of the cities without even the current amount of pennies they receive. Thus our Legal Services Corp. must be fixed quickly before it fails. The current problem is that the Law firms, which traditionally provided most of the Legal Services’ money, are now being hit very hard by the economic crisis and are thus lowering the amount they are giving to the Legal Services. The government has started off well as Obama’s omnibus bill has provided some aid to Legal Services, even though it is not considered enough to make up for the firms’ shortfall. If the government goes a step farther and decides to free the Legal Services from its current burdens of business, such as its inability to ask for recovery fees in court cases, the system would be able to make enough money to keep itself afloat in this time when most programs require massive amounts of government aid.
- The current legal system needs to be fixed quickly, in my opinion, especially due to the fact that the current economic crisis may lead to many people who used to barely live on their own to go out to Legal Services to ask for aid now. If the system stays in its current state of burdensome schedules and shackled cases, it will not be able to keep providing for the lives of the millions of Americans who will be in dire need of financial aid to support themselves and their families.
- The start times for Fairfax County Public Schools may be changed for the following 2009-2010 school year, however, these changes may be delayed as there are many complaints about the proposed schedule. For high school students, who will be affected the most by the biggest change, start times will go from 7:20 am to 8:30 am. This change has been considered by many, including students, to be much too disruptive a change. However, as the area’s school officials have “championed the five-year effort,” an even-newer schedule would take at least that much more time and money to create. The 169,000-student school system needs to be fixed fast, say members of SLEEP (Start Later for Excellence in Education Proposal), while others argue the effort should lead to a perfect plan where everyone is happy, especially with so much money already gone into the effort.
- I, personally, believe the current plan set forth by the county should go forward as planned and be passed for the upcoming school year. However, my opinion does not really matter very much due to the fact that the proposal will not affect me, though I would still want it if it did affect me. The students and the parents and the school workers are the ones who really need to speak up and come up with a decision. If they truly do not believe the proposed schedule will not work as well as another idea, then they need to go forth and promote their own idea to the school board. If the newer plan receives enough support then maybe it will be passed instead. However, when people just sit around and whine about the proposed plan, then nothing will get done. So either accept it, or propose something better.
- Due to the recession, some new ideas are being introduced in the United States that would have otherwise been deemed too socialistic. Ideas such as the nationalization of banks were never before considered to the extent it is being declared necessary today. The nationalization of banks would lead to the dilution of the value of privately owned shares, as well as having creditors wiped out with a complete takeover, as stated in this Washington Post editorial. The editor is very fearful of the consequences of having the big banks, like Bank of America and Citigroup, taken over and nationalized. The government takeover of banks would mark a drastic change that has been foreshadowed for a while now as our capitalistic system has finally shown the major signs of having become a socialist nation. Coupled with the bailout plan, the government has really reached its arms out and taken control of the American economy.
- I, personally, believe that the banks had their chance. These banks had plenty of time to stabilize and safeguard their properties, but they didn’t. Instead these very same giants spent their money with reckless abandon and no regard for the safe keeping of their shareholders and creditors. Their investments in shaky businesses led to the economic crisis becoming more dangerous than a normal recession. These banks had their chance to reform and fix themselves, but they failed, and thus it is now the governments turn to take control of these banks and see what can be done to fix the deteriorating economic situation. If the government’s takeover really does go according to plan and the consumer’s confidence is restored, then maybe in the future banks will be a little more careful with where they spend their money.
- Maybe.
