The World Beyond BetterMost > Anything Goes
Why are the poor, poor?
injest:
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/03/30/the_sting_of_poverty/?page=full
an interesting theory...
brokeplex:
"Social conservatives have tended to argue that poor people lack the smarts or willpower to make the right choices. Social liberals have countered by blaming racial prejudice and the crippling conditions of the ghetto for denying the poor any choice in their fate. Neoconservatives have argued that antipoverty programs themselves are to blame for essentially bribing people to stay poor."
I don't know of any social conservatives who opine that the poor lack smarts.
I do know of conservatives who argue that antipoverty programs are partly to blame for the cycle of generations of the poor on welfare.
The term "neocon" is much misused in today's politics, the reference above is one of the few times that I have seen it used correctly again.
Kelda:
I thin for every one there is one who lacks the smarts there is one of the other who is prejudiced in some way...
I very much skimmed read this as I never have the patience but I think its certainly got an element of truth in it.
And have these people who debate this have never ever had to worry about what they might eat tomorrow or whether they can afford to go to college.. I often find it hard to see how they can debate what they dont really know...
delalluvia:
--- Quote from: broketrash on April 28, 2008, 01:26:13 pm ---"Social conservatives have tended to argue that poor people lack the smarts or willpower to make the right choices. Social liberals have countered by blaming racial prejudice and the crippling conditions of the ghetto for denying the poor any choice in their fate. Neoconservatives have argued that antipoverty programs themselves are to blame for essentially bribing people to stay poor."
I don't know of any social conservatives who opine that the poor lack smarts.
I do know of conservatives who argue that antipoverty programs are partly to blame for the cycle of generations of the poor on welfare.
The term "neocon" is much misused in today's politics, the reference above is one of the few times that I have seen it used correctly again.
--- End quote ---
I do.
Other people just cannot bring themselves to believe that all people aren't smart enough to become a programmer or surgeon or engineer or lawyer or MBA. THEY did, so they seem to imagine that everyone can do the same if they wanted to and if they haven't or won't it's because of sheer laziness and thus poverty is their own fault.
Clyde-B:
We teach our kids more than we realize just by living our lives. If we're on welfare, they learn by example how to work the welfare system. Why believe in the Puritan work ethic if nobody you know has ever made it work? If we're salesmen, they learn how to sell. If we trust the stock market and invest, they learn to trust investing and something about how to invest in stocks and bonds.
And this doesn't have to be taught by us sitting down and lecturing, it can be learned day by day, just by our kids watching us live and listening to us talk about how we make it in the world. It tough to teach your kids something if you don't know it yourself.
The problem is, we don't all grow up with the same advantages. The rich grow up learning how to be rich. The poor grow up learning how to be poor.
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