Paul Ryan's Econ Professor got me thinking.

I've spent my career working on issues of affordable housing and living in a city with a large homeless population. The issue is complex, and each person's challenges are unique. But I read stuff like this, and I wonder if these folks actually KNOW any poor people:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/05/opinion/keller-the-republican-id.html?ref=billkeller

“My liberal friends say, well, Paul Ryan doesn’t care about the poor,” Hart said. “I would argue it’s the Democrats who don’t care about the poor. They’re the ones that make them wards of the state. And just write them welfare checks.”

This enslavement, as Hart sees it, is not well-intentioned nannying gone wrong, but cynical self-interest by liberal groups: “My view of the N.A.A.C.P. is, you can’t represent a group of downtrodden if you don’t have a permanent group of downtrodden to represent.”

Ryan, his former professor says, wants to “make these people productive members of society, where they can lift themselves up. Maybe others think along these lines, but he’s the only one that would actually try to implement policies.”

I'd like to ask Professor Hart, or any Republican for that matter, to provide some realistic solutions for some specific cases of the "dependent" poor. How would you get these examples, all of whom I have met, to become "productive", self-supporting members of society?

1. a 60 year old female Somali immigrant, with no English skills, taking care of 3 grandchildren while her daughter works.
2. a 53 year old chronically inebriated homeless Native American, costing the state $60k/year in ER costs.
3. a 45 year old homeless schizophrenic who steals food off the plates of diners at outdoor restaurants.
4. a 25 year old mother of 3, abandoned by an unemployed spouse, recieving TANF and living in subsidized housing.

Simply put, I am OK with some people being dependent on government largesse. We are a rich nation, we have money to take care of the less fortunate. And if we bring the MIC to heel, we can do it and balance our budget.