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Regarding the definition of poverty, does it really matter if today's poor are rich compared to the poor of the past when the overall standard has risen so much and everyone avoids you when you live below today's poverty line? Having a microwave, TV, air conditioning and cheap food won't lead you or your kids out of poverty. It's stuff that just makes you think your life is less depressing than it really is, provided you are not poor by choice, which probably applies to hardly anyone in the US.
aww, it must be nice to live with blinders on. many of todays poor are that way by choice. there are many that choose to continue living in the ghettos, there are many that chose to not look for work, many that choose to quit working because it will hinder the amount of welfare the receive.
aww, it must be nice to live with blinders on. many of todays poor are that way by choice. there are many that choose to continue living in the ghettos, there are many that chose to not look for work, many that choose to quit working because it will hinder the amount of welfare the receive.
I don't think many people are like that. There are few vacant jobs and masses of people looking for work, so it is not that people prefer to be unemployed while jobs are waiting for them.
The danger of poverty is a long-term one as having a poor mentality might spread to other people you have to do with, like your kids, which could start a vicious cycle. This is where education is important. I suppose only relatively few poor people are highly educated. When you study hard for years you are not willing to accept staying at home and wasting all the knowledge and skills you have acquired. Your mind and horizon are too wide and suffer from the lack of perspective and stimulation.
I know poverty on the both sides of the pond, and can tell you that American poverty in some ways is much worse than third/second world poverty, especially "psychologically" speaking. Personally, I wouldn't trade second world village poverty for the American kind with AC and medicaid, there is no way. American poors are so isolated, depressed (USA is society of Status, after all), rootless (in the sense of disconnect with tradition and community connections), they are total byproduct of the mass consumer society & mass cult (bombarding them with images of "good" life) but without enough of money (or rat race drive) to consume their minds away from the American kinds of misery & alienation. There no curse greater than being American poor locked in a ghetto/trailer park, etc.. Again, sweat shop goods & Frankenstein food don't make up for the "immaterial" tangibles & intangibles lacking in American poor' lives. Sadly, American ways and American sort of poverty spread around the world as fire.
I don't think many people are like that. There are few vacant jobs and masses of people looking for work, so it is not that people prefer to be unemployed while jobs are waiting for them.
I know you don't think many people are like that, which is why I made the statement about living with blinders. try spending some time in the ghettos of most american cities, and you will find many people just as I described.
And the no work to be found isnt really a viable excuse. Most of the people that claim they can not find work, actually mean to say, I can find work, but I think it is beneath me, so I would rather not work.
I don't think many people are like that. There are few vacant jobs and masses of people looking for work, so it is not that people prefer to be unemployed while jobs are waiting for them. The danger of poverty is a long-term one as having a poor mentality might spread to other people you have to do with, like your kids, which could start a vicious cycle. This is where education is important. I suppose only relatively few poor people are highly educated. When you study hard for years you are not willing to accept staying at home and wasting all the knowledge you acquired. Your mind and horizon is too wide and suffers from the lack of perspective and stimulation.
It is what it is. The kids don't enter school until 5 years old or 6 even.
They have already experienced what they consider "the norm".
Now they go to school and the other kids in school live the same way.
So tell me, how do you break the cycle ? Kids are in school for 6 hours a day...home and in the streets the rest of the time and many kids treat school like a social gathering rather than a learning institution.
"could" start a vicious cycle ? We already have generational welfare families with grandma, mom and daughter receiving government benefits.
The question is how do you break that cycle ?
If you haven't been in inner city schools, it's bad. Some of these kids have grandparents that are in their late 30's, early 40's..yes I said grandparents.
I know you don't think many people are like that, which is why I made the statement about living with blinders. try spending some time in the ghettos of most american cities, and you will find many people just as I described.
And the no work to be found isnt really a viable excuse. Most of the people that claim they can not find work, actually mean to say, I can find work, but I think it is beneath me, so I would rather not work.
As I had added while you were typing your reply, I guess it is mostly an education problem. I assume the percentage of ghetto people with a solid degree is low.
It is what it is. The kids don't enter school until 5 years old or 6 even.
They have already experienced what they consider "the norm".
Now they go to school and the other kids in school live the same way.
So tell me, how do you break the cycle ? Kids are in school for 6 hours a day...home and in the streets the rest of the time and many kids treat school like a social gathering rather than a learning institution.
you start to break the cycle by making it harder for them to live off of welfare, you make it where keeping the same mentality is not lucrative.
As I had added while you were typing your reply, I guess it is mostly an education problem. I assume the percentage of ghetto people with a solid degree is low.
yes it is low, but that doesnt mean that they can not obtain it, actually you will find many in the ghetto that go to college, but unfortunately you will find many of them go, just to get more free money.
you start to break the cycle by making it harder for them to live off of welfare, you make it where keeping the same mentality is not lucrative.
But we are not going in that direction; if anything we're going in just the opposite direction by giving them more so they don't feel stigmatized by being poor.
I know you don't think many people are like that, which is why I made the statement about living with blinders. try spending some time in the ghettos of most american cities, and you will find many people just as I described.
And the no work to be found isnt really a viable excuse. Most of the people that claim they can not find work, actually mean to say, I can find work, but I think it is beneath me, so I would rather not work.
You know even animals make instinctive energy cost-benefit analysis, as in "will consuming prey make up for the energy spent to catch it".
There used to be iron law of wages stating that "Under free market conditions wages of labor tend to approach labor's subsistence & reproduction costs" (after all labor is just another commodity, just like a machine, why pay more to run it and to replace it?). "Fortunately" with globalization and overpopulation, owning class can bypass iron law of wages to pay below substistence&reproduction wages. You know, like some beekeepers who work their bee swarm to death by removing all the honey that bees store for winter. Why pay for a bee swarm to winter if you can get another swarm for cheap in the spring time?
Just think about minimum wage in a context of my post. Is minimum wage sufficient for reproduction of low wage work force, HELL NO. Is minimum wage sufficient for subsistence, not always. Yet, you want poors to be dumber than animals to serve you precious, and work for less than their subsistence wages and to be dumb enough to believe that everyone can get to the top/middle if he tries hard (so you could $ave on policing).
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