BCT Editorial – 4/24/05

This page was last updated on April 28, 2005.

Policy shift; Editorial; Beaver County Times; April 24, 2005.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“Youth must be served. Otherwise, Pennsylvania will continue to wither away.

“The Associated Press reports that while the number of older Pennsylvanians is expected to grow, the number of people under 18 years of age will to drop.

“Gordon F. DeJong, a professor of sociology and demography at Penn State, told the AP that to reverse the loss of young people would require government policies that support the kind of entertainment, lifestyle and jobs that draw college graduates and immigrants.”

[RWC] Gee, what a surprise, an academic who wants to treat the symptom instead of the problem. I don’t know on which side of the economic, political, and social spectrum Dr. DeJong resides, but I have my suspicions unless his “government policies” would return Pennsylvania to limited government. It’s state government’s economic, political, and social interference that is the root of the problem.

“The only problem with that is that these possible residents of the future don't vote now while the growing ranks of the elderly do and will. Pennsylvania needs leaders who can look past that to the future.”

[RWC] The problem is liberalism/progressivism/socialism regardless of what you call it. Given the position expressed in Times editorials, I believe it’s safe to say the Times doesn’t want a policy shift. The Times merely wants to try the same old discredited “solutions” under a different name. I would be stunned if the Times would accept a policy shift toward the conservative principles that would help Pennsylvania be a place that would attract people regardless of their age.