Does Public Policy Really Help the Public?

For a long time there has been much debate over whether public policies are necessary or not. Do people know right from wrong enough to prevent government intervention? Does the government intervene too much? I think the middle of this lies with the question: If the government continues to create public policies will the people ever have the chance to prove that they can handle the responsibility on their own? I feel as if they have possibly given people this option before and that is how they decided public policy needed to happen. Think of it this way how did it become a problem if it was not for us. There has to be a reason that water is running out or that pollution is getting worse. When does the government decided enough is enough. There is much political debate over the role the government should have with the liberals and conservatives having conflicting ideas again. Liberals are in favor of public policy and believe in a larger presence from the government and their input. Conservatives on the other hand are for limited government intervention and believe that public policy is just another way for the government to try and gain complete control. Just like any other political debate I do not think  there is any one right answer and it would be better for everyone if there was a happy medium.

            I also like the example that Gottdiener, Hutchinson, and Ryan use about the recycle bins in a community. They say that some communities have rules that enforce recycling within households and if the members of those houses do not comply they could be forced to pay fines. It seems like a personal decision whether you want to recycle or not and some people would agree that you cannot force your beliefs on others, but the regulations are allowed because recycling benefits the greater good. The idea is that is for he benefit of everyone to protect our resources and the environment because once it is gone it is gone forever.

            They also talk about uneven development and urban policy implying that policies support and help the wealthy while the poor continue to be hurt or unprotected.  The example of life saving drugs only being provided to those that can pay really made me think of how unfair poverty can be. It is no surprise that poverty is an issues that people within urban areas face, but we also know how disproportionate it is to minorities. This example makes it seem as if the lives of black and Hispanic men and women do not matter. How bad does that sound? These policies are supposed to be for the greater good of all people yet even with things such as welfare and Medicaid not all people in poverty could afford a drug that could save their life. They also talk about how these government programs may address the problems that the poor are facing, but they do not suggest or provide the proper solutions.

They offer a simple solution that will maybe reduce the problem but not fix it, because fixing the problems with the poor would likely having to take money from the rich. The government would never allow taking money from the rich to help the poor because they are part of that rich culture or the rich people are the ones running their campaigns. Most educated explinations would say simply taking money from the rich and giving it to the poor is not the answer or solution. I do not think it works quite like the animated Robin Hood movie we might have seen as children. Money seems to be the solution to all, but it is important to understand that people need to want a change and to prevent problems in the first place.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/07/business/a-public-policy-failure.html?_r=0

I like the way this link explains the work of public policy and how they do what they can do without completely failing or completely solving the problems. It also talks about why taking from the rich will not have the effect on helping the poor that people think.

https://youtu.be/wXYSsA5yVSY

This video is kind of awesome. She talks about trying to make public policy more fun since it I such a heavy topic of the United States problems. The biggest problem is she uses words like wicked, and says we have more than “99 problems” like the song lyrics “99 problems but a b*tch ain’t one”. Once you get past all of the terrible attempts to be fun the video explains the problems with the way public policy is enforced.