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This is what I like to hear! Good for you both. I lean conservative/libertarian, so what I am about to say may be a shock. I used to believe everyone had equal opportunity in the U.S. I do not think that anymore. Inner city poor do not have the same opportunities as the affluent whether in a city or in the burbs. They don't get the parental support, nor cultural support. May inner city kids don't think it is "cool" to do well in school, and are derided by their peers if they do, then they often come home to a single parent, who just doesn't care. Lose/Lose situation. How to fix it? Dunno.
Many children don't get parental support and think it is cool to be dumb. And will note that there are many non-black children in the inner city. I grew up with and still know a lot of inner city white children who have way worse problems than most of the inner city black children I know due to their parents being strung out on drugs at the moment. Many of the inner city white children I know are foster children. Our school system has the highest amount of homeless students in the state and a majority of them are white inner city students who have been negative impacted by the heroin epidemic. I agree that inner city children who come from dysfunctional families do not have the same opportunities as a child with a great family environment whether they are in urban or suburban areas.
I grew up with a single parent, most single parents do care. I got straight As. I also knew that education was the way for me to get more of what I wanted out of life. In regards to culture, I knew this because as a black child in a black family, I was aware of this over and over from my parents my grandparents and my great grandparents. Education as a means for improvement in life in is a long standing cultural tenet of black American culture. The first thing formerly enslaved families did post-Civil War was to get educated and get their children educated. Prior to the civil war one of the main issues that free blacks advocated for was to have their children be able to be educated in public schools. Free blacks were denied public education in a majority of the country prior to the Civil War, in both northern and southern states BTW. After abolition, this was their biggest issue to advocate on.
Again, it is the individual IMO as what affects one person might not affect another. And the opportunities of what we call the "Greatest Generation" and how those ancestors of yours took advantage of those opportunities is a huge contributor to the current socio-economic status of your life and your family. That generation was my great grandparents. Again, they were not allowed to participate in the post WW2 boom even though nearly every male in my family in that generation served in the war, one of them was killed in the war. They came home and were trapped in the ghetto while their white servicemen and their families were allowed to buy homes and better the lives of their families. Mine was not allowed to do so until the late 1970s, that was a huge detriment to black Americans as a whole.
All Black people are not welfare Momma's and that's a terrible stereotype. That said when I drive through the neighborhood I see lot's of nice SUV's and nice cars parked outside the public housing apartments. I happen to think it's mostly tax return money. If you're a low income earner and have kids, using the EIC, that's $10K+ yearly in tax returns. I think a lot of those checks go to the used car dealerships as down payments. In the hood, a nice car seems to be the equivalent of home ownership in the middle class White neighborhoods, so I do think there's an element of poor investment going on. Part of that is cultural, part is lack of financial education.
I worked in public housing and did not see a lot of nice SUVs and cars in public housing apartments and I inspected those units and had to meet with those residents on a regular basis.
What do you consider a "nice SUV" or car? I bet most of them are just clean, old cars lol.
I do agree thought that many of them use their EIC to buy cars, but I never saw any Escalades in public housing that was owned by a resident or anyone in their household. I did see very old nice cars like Mercedes Benz or Volvos or newer American cars like Pacificas and various mini-vans. You can buy one of those cars for less than the EIC payment and most of them bought cars because they had to work and needed transportation. A car is a good investment for someone who has a job and needs to go to work.
I also dont' think that car ownership for that population is the equivalent of home ownership. It is a way to get to work and to take kids to school and go shopping, just like all other people who don't live near decent transit systems use them for. Many of our public housing residents wanted to become homeowners and there are programs that assist them and Section 8 residents to doing just that, which includes financial literacy courses and credit counseling. Unfortunately many of the people in public housing have mental health issues or are some of those people who are just deafeated psychologically and don't think they are smart or can do anything of any value so they don't take advantage of those programs. The latter residents are also the ones least likely to have cars/vehicles in the first place. Many of them dont even have a driver's license. You'd be surprised at how many people I knew in public housing who didn't think they were smart enough to learn to drive - these were young people too.
You and I have gone roundy roundy with this subject before. No matter what I point out as a way an individual of any race can do to better themselves, you shoot it down with some form of "only white people can succeed, ever" narrative.
You don't buy anything I type, and I clearly don't buy anything you type. I will stick to my stance, however, because it empowers the individual to do things, where yours encourages giving up if not white.
Good choices and perseverance lead to good outcomes; blaming others and giving up leads to bad outcomes. Race is irrelevant to that axiom. Up to you how you choose to navigate your world.
This is not a marketplace where we are bartering and buying and selling. What I am stating is mathematical fact. If there are 100 black people, 90 working and 10 unemployed, with the average working making 25k a year and there are 100 white people and the average worker makes 50K with 5 of them unemployed, he racial economic gaps are not born from how blacks and whites cohabit....but rather, from the FACT that the average individual in each race being unequal in economic status. Hence, regardless of how you group together black individual income, it will ALWAYS add up to less than a similar grouping of white individuals whose average income is greater. Marriage cannot increase and does not increase individual income. Hence, marriage is NOT the cause of these income and wealth gaps between blacks and whites.
This is not a marketplace where we are bartering and buying and selling. What I am stating is mathematical facts. If there are 100 black people, 90 working and 10 unemployed, with the average working making 25k a year and there are 100 white people and the average worker makes 50K with 5 of them unemployed. The racial economic gaps are not born from how blacks and whites cohabit....but rather, from the FACT that the average individual in each race being unequal in economic status. Hence, regardless of how you group together black individual income, it was ALWAYS add up to less than a similar group of white individuals who earn more.
Want to address poverty amongst certain demographics. Tell them to stop bringing babies into the world where there is no father and no ability or plan to support.
Tell that to the millions still alive due to certain cures, vaccines, sewer and sanitary systems, fending off of Nazis, warning of storms and hurricanes and innumerable other actions which have saved tens or 100's of millions over the generations.
Tell that to the billions who will be helped by the decoding the Genome - a project started along it's way by the government. Same for the telegraph, the transcontinental rr, the first scheduled air flights (mail) and - again, thousands of other such things.
The easiest thing to do in life is repeat a slogan.
You GROSSLY Over-state the numbers, AND government's (especially, the Federal Government's) role in such actions.
A far more accurate assessment of the facts would
The Federal Government creates far more problems than it solves.
Want to address poverty amongst certain demographics. Tell them to stop bringing babies into the world where there is no father and no ability or plan to support.
How can may argument be a causation fallacy......when I presented no causation in what you quoted? I was arguing against a causation.
No father is not synonymous with no plan for support......and having a father present is not synonymous with having a plan and support.
This is not a marketplace where we are bartering and buying and selling. What I am stating is mathematical fact. If there are 100 black people, 90 working and 10 unemployed, with the average working making 25k a year and there are 100 white people and the average worker makes 50K with 5 of them unemployed, he racial economic gaps are not born from how blacks and whites cohabit....but rather, from the FACT that the average individual in each race being unequal in economic status. Hence, regardless of how you group together black individual income, it will ALWAYS add up to less than a similar grouping of white individuals whose average income is greater. Marriage cannot increase and does not increase individual income. Hence, marriage is NOT the cause of these income and wealth gaps between blacks and whites.
I agree with the bold, but it does increase "household income" which is usually what is statistically discussed.
A large percent of black households are single individually lead households. They are automatically lower than a household with a married couple who are both working.
FWIW prior to marrying my husband, I filed "head of household" with just our son and myself. I was technically low income when he was a baby as I only made about $30-$35k per year (with commissions at the bank). However, at the time, my husband, and we lived together, made about $45k per year. He also filed taxes as a single person and so due to he and I, on paper, have two separate households making less than $45k each, we would have been in the median range of "household income" for black families.
When our son was in kindergarten, we got married. I made about $45k then and him about $50k. So together we made $90K. Our household increased the average and median income of "black households" just because we got married and now file our taxes "married filing jointly."
Income statistics are based on some sort of reports on households, not individuals usually. That is why I told the OP earlier that most black married couples actually do make more than the median black income range. The singles and their single incomes bring down our "total household incomes" on paper. This is also a reason why people shouldn't 100% trust statistics. There are various variables that people do not take into consideration when citing this information.
Must be nice to live in a storybook Leave it to Beaver family. Sometimes though, people are incompatible. Seeing your parents in a miserable marriage "just for the kids" is much worse than seeing them happily separate.
And 3% down on a house?? That's insane. I wouldn't even consider buying a home without having at least 75% down. In my area (where all the jobs are), that's about $750K.
Of course all I've mentioned here is net worth, and not in addition to income. However, again it's worthy to note most black people have little to no net worth. So if you're black, all your hopes and dreams will most likely be locked within your level of income. Is income enough? According to the stats, heck no it isn't! The median income for white families is 72k a year, for black families 43k. So for every black family, you are literally living paycheck to paycheck. However, what happens if you lose your job?
Here's the kicker OP. If "anyone" does increase their income then because of our tax code, the government wants a higher percentage off the top instead of allowing you to keep it so you can build your net worth... And yet the left wants higher taxes. It's no wonder people have a hard time building net worth.
My generation in my family is the first to really make a decent income and not all of us do. I'm aware that I am much more motivated than many of my cousins and siblings in various ways, but one has to consider that they may have been more motivated had our recent ancestors not been forced to live in dangerous, stalled socio-economic areas. I also dealt a lot with poverty, drugs, gangs, abuse, etc - things that come along with living in the ghetto. Many of these are things that I know I would not have had to endure had my grandparents been allowed to move out of the neighborhood we lived in post WW2 like the Irish and the Polish and the Germans and the Jews were able to do in my area.
Are you saying that no black people lived in safe neighborhoods post WWII? Plenty of poor whites could also not escape their neighborhoods. Maybe your grandparents would not have been able to leave their area, just as many whites were unable. It didn't stop the next generation from improving or raising children in intact families. Poverty doesn't explain break up of the family, if anything it should be a motivating factor to work together as many immigrants do.
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