Promise Zones : Fundamental Change for The Masses

What in the world are these people thinking, and worse maybe, why would any community except the federal government into their planning when past history is so huge showing every time it's done chaos follows? Every time.

And after nearly six years of the Obama administration demanding "fundamental" change in the form of income redistribution ,a progressive socialism, neocommunism, the people still don't see the devil in the details. If you accept the money you have to accept the control as well, and once they have the control, your freedom of choice is over. Your individual freedom is gone.  Period!

It's the new reality, Mr Obama wants to socialize the entire country, bringing it under the control of a central government where all decisions are made on who you are and what you will become. Remember the frog in the pot of water before the heat is added swimming around having a grand old time?? But when the heat is added to the pot all that changed. There is no escape.

Sadly, many among us are more then willing to accept being controlled by others. I don't remember who said it, maybe Ron Paul on leaving government service, ' why is freedom such a hard sell?'

As the saying goes, 'freedom means having nothing else to lose'. But believe once it's gone, all that remains is weeping the gnashing of teeth in the dark.

Will Promise Zone Program Help the Poor?
Source: Elizabeth Barber, "Will Obama's 'Promise Zone' Program Really Help the Poor?" Christian Science Monitor, January 9, 2014.
January 16, 2014

President Obama recently announced the recipients of his "promise zone" program, says the Christian Science Monitor.

• The president's new promise zone program is intended to provide aid to geographic areas in which the poor live.
• The first places that will receive aid through the program include parts of San Antonio, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Kentucky and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.

The program is part of the Obama administration's broader push against income inequality. Over the next four years, the program will be launched in 20 zones, both rural and urban.

• Those zones will remain a part of the program for a decade.
• The areas will receive congressionally-approved tax credits as well as help from federal agencies to combat a variety of social problems, from crime to high school dropout rates.

Zip code-targeted policies have been around since 1933, when FDR created the Tennessee Valley Authority. Similarly, President Kennedy started the Appalachian Regional Commission in 1963, which President Johnson expanded in 1965.

The promise zone program is modeled on the Clinton "empowerment zones" (EZ) program, which gave tax credits to distressed urban areas. There is no consensus as to whether the EZ program worked, and unless the promise zone initiative has very meticulous tools in place to measure its success, it is also going to be incredibly difficult to tell whether the program is actually helping the poor.

Other analysts are concerned that the program will only shift the problem around, if the program simply draws investment and jobs away from nearby places and into the targeted communities.