Somalia is experiencing a terrible famine. The United Nations is blaming it on a drought. But as Don Boudreaux points out, perhaps there's a deeper cause for Somalia's tragedy.
There are a lot of people living in areas with little rainfall (San Diego, 12 inches a year) or who are experiencing a drought who aren't starving. Why does Somalia not have access to global supplies of food and why don't the Somalis use modern agricultural technologies to ensure against drought and increase crop yields?
It's because Somalia doesn't have a capitalist system and the Somali people don't live in freedom.
When the world gives them food aid (over $450 million this year from America) it only MASKS the problem of not having enough food. The REAL problem (the thing that results in Somalia not having enough food) is a lack of capitalism and freedom. Is there anything being done to remedy THIS problem?
There is a similar lack of focus in the affirmative action debate. As we outlined at 7:00 this morning, the attorney for By Any Means Necessary admitted twice that the reason minorities are underrepresented in elite colleges is because of "inferior" and "second-rate" public schools. Affirmative action (forcing colleges to accept unprepared students) only MASKS the problems of unprepared students. If we actually want to SOLVE the problem of unprepared students, we need to address the structural failures of the public school system.
Here is today's 7:00 segment where we applied this to even a third issue of the day:
http://media.worldnow.com/kfmbam/podcast/the_mike_slater_show_4910.mp3
Here is the interview on Friday with George Washington, the lawyer for By Any Means Necessary on why he thinks race SHOULD be a factor in college admissions:
http://media.worldnow.com/kfmbam/podcast/the_mike_slater_show_4888.mp3
For every "solution" that is proposed, we need to ask ourselves, "Does this solve THE problem, or just mask the consequences of the real problem?"
As Henry David Thoreau said, "There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking the root"
We need to STRIKE THE ROOT!
