Underserved by Ja'Ron Smith & Chris Pilkerton

Author:Ja'Ron Smith & Chris Pilkerton [Smith, Ja’Ron & Pilkerton, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781637588659
Publisher: Post Hill Press
Published: 2023-06-07T15:22:03+00:00

Chapter Seven

The Country’s Unfinished Business: The White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council and the Platinum Plan

Despite what most people think, conservative economists tend to recognize the need for government action in certain market events. One can look back as recently as the initial economic response to the COVID pandemic as an example of how an elastic approach to capitalism in times of crisis is consistent with a conservative approach to democracy. But the most impactful version of such a response includes: a recognition that a problem exists; a thoughtful and bipartisan approach to addressing the problem; and a sustained approach that is intentional, consistently measured, and able to continue without political frailty. So when it comes to underserved communities, let us take a representative view of what conservative economists might say in response to the market failure facing them, through the lens of Milton Friedman, who famously stated that “one of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results,” and that “nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.”345

Based on the above, it is clear that Friedman would have supported a free-market approach to advance underserved communities, one that that would be results-oriented, truly temporary, and beneficial for all parties. The authors contend that Thomas Sowell would concur with this. In his unique style, he made the clear case that the private sector plays a critical role in addressing this issue when he said:

It was Thomas Edison who brought us electricity, not the Sierra Club. It was the Wright brothers who got us off the ground, not the Federal Aviation Administration. It was Henry Ford who ended the isolation of millions of Americans by making the automobile affordable, not Ralph Nader. Those who have helped the poor the most have not been those who have gone around loudly expressing “compassion” for the poor, but those who found ways to make industry more productive and distribution more efficient, so that the poor of today can afford things that the affluent of yesterday could only dream about.346

As policy professionals, Chris and Ja’Ron had the great privilege of effecting change for underserved communities in the Trump administration. In areas such as criminal justice reform and economic development, they were able to serve as both mechanic and driver in what must be a race to address the plight of underserved communities. And while nothing is perfect, a great deal still remains to be done, as evidenced by the words of Tocqueville when he said, “The great privilege of the Americans does not simply consist in their being more enlightened than other nations, but in their being able to repair the faults that they may commit.” This quote does not speak just to the Judeo-Christian concept of forgiveness and reconciliation, but rather to the idea that as an American people we can evolve from generation to generation. However, that evolution is not always smooth and it is not always predictable; and it only works when it is intentional.

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