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I have noticed that many of the threads that are on this board, end up being rants against the less advantaged. For example, mention Hempstead or Wyandanch and you quickly have people going on and on about how horrible they are and about how all the people are welfare recipients. You get things like "If they can't afford to live here, they should move", "They should get themselves educated and get better jobs", etc.
Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to have a thread devoted to this topic. Why are poor people poor? Are they lazy, stupid? Are they disadvantaged through no fault of their own? Is there a way out (not just for the exceptional few, but for all)? Do we have an obligation as a society to help? What are your thoughts?
Firstly, let me throw in the need for compassion for the poor. To me, this is a moral obligation, and I'm obligated to give "the poor" at least SOME benefit of the doubt.
In answer to your question, however, "why are they poor?" really has no more substance than asking "why do some people love football?", or "why do some people hate country music?" In brief, the answers are far too varied and complex to be put down in this forum. It's really a matter of debate what the term "poor" even defines. It's different, depending on who you ask.
Here's my guess: Some people are poor because they have invested their working lives into careers that have gone 'belly-up' due to reasons beyond their control. Or cruel fate has simply struck them with a series of disasters and personal setbacks. Or racial discrimination has destroyed their own sense of initiative. It's easy to feel symapthetic for such folks. It's a sober reminder that NONE of us are free of the possibility of someday 'losing it all', and that we have no right to 'look down on' the poor.
Other people, though, are members of extended families or cultures that simply don't place great value on acquiring the "tools" for building wealth. THey simply aren't willing to really 'do what it takes'---in large measure, perhaps, because no one has ever explained to them just what this is. These people MIGHT become wealthy, but if they do so, it will be IN SPITE of their background, while others do so BECAUSE of theirs. Broken families, single parenthood, absentee fathers, and a "macho" anti-intellectualism certainly do make it less likely that a person will be inclined to "make it" in a modern, high-tech society where education is absolutely vital to ones' ability to compete, and a large measure of self-denial and delayed gratification are necessary if one wants a worthwhile 'payoff' later. Even the single factor of out-of-wedlock births, when they involve a huge percentage of the population, virtually GUARANTEE that the young, ill-prepared mothers (and most of the dead-beat dads) are destined for a life of financial struggle. Have a "kid" at 15, and your prospects for a bright future pretty well dry up. It makes an ENORMOUS difference in his chances for success, if a young beginning college student is PRAISED and encouraged by his family and friends, or is MOCKED by them for "acting pretentious and uppity".
Kids who get no parental involvement in their early school years, who are raised in a home without books, with mindless TV shows blaring all day, and who never have a serious discussion with an admired, respected, successful, adult, and who look at the greater society out there as 'the enemy', stand little chance of suddenly "breaking in" to the world of success upon reaching their 18th birthday. By then it's too late. And, like it or not, this is often the critical difference between success and failure in adult life, and the difference between affluence and poverty.
It's a HUGE subject, far more complex than we can address here....and if you're trying to assign "fault", its even MORE complex. I won't go there...
People are poor for two reasons: Genetic and Environmental.
The Environmental Poor are usually victims of social, economic, or geographic conditions not of their making, but within their power to change, by migrating or revolting for example.
The Genetic Poor will always be poor and make up the huge "Underclass" that is part of the natural human condition. It may be possible for some to escape their situation, but few ever do.
There's so many possible reasons that it's impossible to classify the "main" reason that poor people are poor... everyone's an individual, some hardworking people who live in shacks might be billionaires if they grew up in different circumstances, some poor people are lazy, some rich people are lazy, everybody has their anecdotal example of one particular reason but it doesn't really prove anything about the larger group. I do think we owe them enough benefit of the doubt to provide some minimum standard of living and better opportunities to enter the middle class, though. Our economic system guarantees that there will always be poor people, as there would be even if everyone in the country was equally qualified and motivated for everything, simply because there's not an infinite demand for skilled/highly-skilled labor, or CEO's, etc. Somebody has to run the cash register. And there's not an infinite demand for labor, period, either... it's a competition, there will always be people who want a job but can't get one.
I agree this is a huge subject with lots of different components.
I just want to touch briefly on the way people dress and what they might drive and their poverty level.
It's possible to be poor and dress nicely and drive a nice car. Part of the reason why is because employers who offer decent jobs often expect this.
If you get a job in outside sales (which is one way to eventually climb out of poverty), employers don't want to see you driving around to clients in an old beat-up car. A nice car makes you look successful -- and this means something to employers and customers. I'll go as far as to say: You WON'T get an outside sales job with ANY great company unless you are driving a nice car. (You don't need to own the car. It can be leased.) Companies used to provide cars but those days are long gone. Companies no longer get the tax write-offs for providing cars, so they don't provide them.
Regarding clothes -- even when I had a menial receptionist job making minimum wage, employers expected me to dress like I made a million dollars. It's possible to dress nicely wearing second hand clothes and shopping in outlet stores, but you still need to dress well to hold a decent job.
Until we can change employer attitudes on the two things above (which I don't think will ever happen), any person hoping to climb out of poverty via outside sales is going to need the tools of the profession.
I can say, if the gap between the rich and the poor keeps growing like it has been, and we continue to keep exporting most of our jobs overseas; WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A LOT MORE POOR IN THIS COUNTRY! (Particularly if the dollar continues to fall in value or if we lose our status as the world's reserve currency.)
And we have rich people because we pay them to remain rich.. difference is, its a choice to pay one by buying the services they provide.
Ha! This country really could use another Great Depression to level out the playing field again.
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