This chapter from Born on Third Base proved insightful. Collins makes some great points and brings a lot of inequality issues forward. The chapter is rooted in a story about a man (presumably Collins himself) who goes to a retirement community to talk to other men about inequality and taxing the wealthy (he mentions he is at least 25 years younger than his audience). A lot of them are WW II veterans who received benefits from the GI Bill when they returned home.
Collins explains many benefits from the GI Bill and other programs, such as low-interest mortgage rates, attending college debt-free, scholarships for education and training, grants for starting small businesses, and unemployment pay for a year (up to $20/wk). These benefits helped expand the middle class. The author then presents statistics to demonstrate how beneficial these programs were to returning veterans and to show how they were not a waste of taxpayer money.
While these benefits helped out many, they didn't have the same impact on returning veterans who weren't white. Unfortunately, African American and Latino veterans came home to segregated schools and discriminatory practices still in place. Thus, if these African American and Latino older generations were not able to receive these same benefits, it had an impact on the following and current African American and Latino generations. Collins argues this may be contributing to present-day race inequality (largely exemplified by homeownership rates: whites = 72%, African American = 43%, Latinos = 45%).
The solution? A new GI Bill to the next generation for people in the military, teachers, nurses, firefighters, scientists - anyone who does a duty to serve his or her country. And this time, have no racial or other discriminatory practices in place so all races and all kinds of people can take advantage of the opportunity. Also, the perception of subsidies needs to change - people need to start gladly accepting help from the government (like our older generations did) and stop looking for examples of wasted tax dollars to justify opposition of paying taxes. How can we expect the government to bail us out when we are in trouble financially if we are so against paying taxes?
Collins explains many benefits from the GI Bill and other programs, such as low-interest mortgage rates, attending college debt-free, scholarships for education and training, grants for starting small businesses, and unemployment pay for a year (up to $20/wk). These benefits helped expand the middle class. The author then presents statistics to demonstrate how beneficial these programs were to returning veterans and to show how they were not a waste of taxpayer money.
While these benefits helped out many, they didn't have the same impact on returning veterans who weren't white. Unfortunately, African American and Latino veterans came home to segregated schools and discriminatory practices still in place. Thus, if these African American and Latino older generations were not able to receive these same benefits, it had an impact on the following and current African American and Latino generations. Collins argues this may be contributing to present-day race inequality (largely exemplified by homeownership rates: whites = 72%, African American = 43%, Latinos = 45%).
The solution? A new GI Bill to the next generation for people in the military, teachers, nurses, firefighters, scientists - anyone who does a duty to serve his or her country. And this time, have no racial or other discriminatory practices in place so all races and all kinds of people can take advantage of the opportunity. Also, the perception of subsidies needs to change - people need to start gladly accepting help from the government (like our older generations did) and stop looking for examples of wasted tax dollars to justify opposition of paying taxes. How can we expect the government to bail us out when we are in trouble financially if we are so against paying taxes?
Thank you for your analysis! From what I understand, the treatment that those of color received was not because of the GI Bill, but because of racism in the country. Why is the author proposing a new GI Bill?
ReplyDelete-Kaela
I agree with you that many people are against taxes as long as they are not those who benefit from them. But being part of a society means sharing with other people, regardless of their race, religion, or political ideas. I think that there is still a lot we have to do to eradicate any form of racism from our society.
ReplyDeleteGreat summary! I was pretty unaware of all the details of the GI bill. I just remember a little bit about it from history class and a sociology GE I took. Collins raises an interesting point about home ownership today largely being white dominated.
ReplyDelete-Brendan
Very interesting read! I didn't know that the original GI Bill had discriminatory practices in place that limited African American and Latino veterans.
ReplyDeleteI like this section as it focalizes on the middle class where alot of issues and strenths come in. The many benefits from the GI Bill that collins explains alongside other programs, such as low-interest mortgage rates, attending college debt-free etc. helped build the middle class and add to the over arching theme of the "common wealth". The backed up argument with how these vertrans through studies showed they did not waste tax dollars also brings up a lot of truth. I see alot problems today surrounding our military especially with vetrans in the past. Not that this section had to do with it, but helping out the commonwealth most certantly does. There should be programs like this still in place coupled with personal help towards the commonwealth.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the summary. I didn't know a lot about the GI Bill so I enjoyed reading about the details. I am curious what a modern day GI Bill without the discriminatory practices would look like. I think it would be hard to realistically implement but I'm sure it has a number of advantages.
ReplyDelete-Ryan Baer
This was a very interesting summary to read, and I've always understood the importance of the GI Bill but never quite looked at some statistics as in depth as you have here. While the concept of a new GI Bill sounds good in theory I do believe it would be very difficult to actually create, as in one way or another, anyone who has a job that makes the country more productive would fall under this bill. Is this then a blanket bill for everyone, and how exactly would that work? I understand the point of trying to undo the inequities of before I just don't think this new GI Bill concept would be the best way of going about it practically.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to see what the GI bill means for the people it will effect. I really hadn't heard much about the GI bill before this, and I definitely had no idea how many people it directly affected. Thanks for the summary!
ReplyDelete-KT
This was a very interesting read. I had no idea about this bill and how it could be affecting the current race inequality. The lives people of color came back to was due to racism and this is just another part of the disadvantages of the society at the time.
ReplyDeleteInteresting to see that part about race inequality from the GI Bill, but I think the disadvantage came from society itself and not the bill. On the other hand, a new GI Bill sounds great, but the last one was put into law after WW2 to help the large amount of soldiers that were active get back on their feet and contribute to society. I hope it doesn't take another large scale war for a new GI Bill to come into place, but it seems like that is a possibility.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea about the GI Bill before reading this. Thank you for the great summary ! I hope the new GI Bill for the next generation could fix the problem of race and many more within it.
ReplyDelete