Texas blows it again

Texas struggles to retain caseworkers

On one of the other blogs, I wrote about my experiences coming to terms with our society's racial issues, and mentioned my career in the public welfare bureaucracy as an influence. At the time I retired in 1998, I'd spent one half of my life (to that point) in the business. It was always a tough line of work, but it got tougher still when Willy Wanker was elected governor in 1994. Knowing even then he'd someday be running for president, W started trying to reform the state's welfare system by privatizing it. One problem I have with Repub philosophy is their misguided conviction that everything can be improved by letting the profit motive operate as THE controlling force. Anyone who had been in the business as long as I was could've predicted that turning a massive public service over to a private, profit-oriented corporation was a bad idea destined to fail.

The privatization plan introduced by W was eventually derailed, but not before I was able to bail out. A few years later, when W was president and the Repubs had gained the majority in the state legislature, Texas decided to take another stab at privatization, resulting in the virtual destruction of its welfare system. Widespread destruction is the only thing that conservatives are good at.

Anyway, the Austin American Statesman has done a fair job staying on top of the story, which is mainly of interest to people (like me) who believe the government can play an important role in maintaining a decent society. The link is to an article describing the current state of affairs