my solutions tend to be more..progressive and system orientated because, honestly, that's the best way to do the "most good". Is to look at trends for causes of poverty, lack of education, mental health access, drug rehab access, protections against child abuse, all sorts of things.
but when looking at individuals? friends, family members, even strangers - i dunno. There's a part of me that doesn't want to use systematic oppressions to absolve people of personal responsibility.
I understand life is harsh, unfair, an uphill battle - but if on the individual level we give up hope and resign ourselves as nothing more than victims of our environment, we destroy a key element to our self improvement.
I'm an advocate of the welfare state, strong socialized medicine, strong socialized retirement (social security), food assistance programs, strong education, funding for headstart and pre-k. I have all sorts of beliefs of what we can do to lessen crime - ending the drug war, and i have some incredibly reformative (tinkering on revolutionairy) perspectives about police reform and education reform.
But I've seen too many people in my life who've relatively had similar experiences to live as me - who now sit in prison, or.. ended up dead from gun violence that would have been totally avoidable if they made different choices. I knew these people. I was friends with these people. Close friends. Hope, vision, even the dillusion that somehow you're something more than your environment, the illusion of control... i honestly believe these things matter.
I usually abhor Republicans, and conservatives. They get all boot strappy as a way to judge and throw stones, and as a means to deflect or avoid coming up with common sense solutions to widespread problems.
But on a personal level? I can't abandon a sense of personal responsibility.
It matters. If there's any chance of persevering from the bottom rungs of society, self determination, the belief in free will (even if it's wrong), i truly feel can greatly impact individual outcome.