Let's Embrace Cancel Culture: Here is what we should cancel next!

Cancel culture is running rampant today, tearing down statues of confederate soldiers, then statues of people who owned slaves but did some other really good things, then even people who fought for abolition and so on.  To be honest, I can agree with some stuff.  I don't think it is appropriate to celebrate the confederate cause.  However, it seems like cancel culture is pretty selective on what they want to cancel.  But, if we are going to embrace cancel culture, here are the things we should cancel next:

1. Planned Parenthood
   This evil organization was founded by a clear racist, Margaret Sanger not only supported eugenics, a truly evil philosophy, but she spoke at KKK rallies.  Further this organization has historically targeted black neighborhoods and to this day 38% of abortions are black children; black people make up about 13% of the population.  The racist legacy of Planned Parenthood is alive and well. 
2. The Welfare State
   Government social programs, even if well intentioned, have severely harmed many of our black communities.  In the 60's government agents would literally go door to door and tell women that if they had children and there was no man in the house they would get more money.  The welfare state has severely harmed many, but especially those in the black community.  In the early 1960's about 25% of kids in the black community were without dads; today about 75% of kids in the black community are growing up without dads.  It seems likely the welfare state is the cause.  Perhaps there are opportunities to reform some of these programs to encourage families to stay together, people to work, and still operate as a safety net.
3. Teachers unions and limiting educational choice to traditional public schools
   Don't get me wrong, there are some redeemable things about public schools, and we have amazing teachers who give everything they have in a system that I believe is very broken.  However, schools in highly impacted areas (usually minority neighborhoods) are often failing.  There are all kinds of causes including culture, money, and family units.  However, charter schools are a great option, but often face an uphill battle because teachers unions fight like crazy to keep charter schools at bay.  Between charter schools and vouchers, parents in highly impacted neighborhoods could have much better education options for their kids than the failing traditional public school down the street. Maybe we should cancel failing traditional public schools in favor of other options.  Not all, or even most traditional public schools are failing, but most in highly impacted neighborhoods are.  
4. The Democratic Party
   Yep, I said it.  The Democratic party should be cancelled IF the cancel culture is going to be consistent.  While I could be,  and sometimes am, critical of the Republican party, it needs to be recognized that the Republican party was responsible for ending slavery, supporting civil rights, and ending much of the racist policies from the Jim Crow era.  The Democrat party is responsible for the confederate army, the KKK, Jim Crow laws, fought against desegregation, supports Planned Parenthood (see above), and so much more.  The truth is, I don't really think we should just cancel the Democratic party, I just think we should recognize the inconsistency in cancel culture. 
5. The minimum wage
   Yes, I know some people love this policy, but I honestly believe people who think the minimum wage is a good idea do not understand economics.  The minimum wage puts people who have low skills out of the job market.  If you have to pay more, you are going to want more for that money.  Further, if you can hire illegal immigrants and pay them under the table (also very wrong, but it happens) for less, the people that get hurt are unskilled laborers.  Who are those unskilled laborers?  Unfortunately, many of them are minorities.  Those unskilled workers are unable to acquire a skill and increase their value so they can get paid more.  Further, increases in minimum wages cause prices for products and services to increase and devalue the dollar (inflation).  This also causes what is called wage compression.  In other words, if the minimum wage increases the people who were making more than minimum wage will want and deserve a raise because they have developed some skill.  Once you give them a raise, you have to go to the next level...all the way to the top.  Pretty soon there is another demand for a minimum wage increase so it is a "living wage" (the same argument made in the 1930's).  This is really basic economics.  The people who can least afford it are hurt the most by minimum wage laws.  
6. Illegal immigration (not legal immigration)
   This is not a race thing, it is an economic thing.  We can talk, and should talk, about having better legal immigration laws in conjunction with ending illegal immigration.  Illegal immigrants work for less money and undercut the pay for legal citizens and other legal workers in the US.  This takes away jobs from the least skilled workers in our country who need to learn and develop skills to make themselves marketable or even start their own businesses. 

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There may be more things we should consider reforming or cancelling, but too often we are more concerned about making a statement than making a difference.  We need to reverse that trend and be more concerned about making a difference than making a statement.  

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