Please explain to me why anybody should have sympathy for the poor (minimum wage, drugs)

[lifeexplorer]

Please explain to me why anybody should have sympathy for the poor:

1. They don’t pay taxes but take in all the benefits.
2. They commit most of violent crimes including murder by number and by ratio.
3. They don’t produce anything.
4. They have the highest single motherhood rate.
5. They don’t take care of their children.
6. They have the highest alcohol and drug abuse by number and by ratio.
7. They don’t care about education.

I understand #1 as they are poor and don’t have money, but the rest points are inexcusable for being poor.

[ottomobeale]

WHICH poor?
Two small examples
There is a VAST difference between
Carl Couchpotato and Willy Walmartworker.
The clinically crazy homeless guy and the one who "just wants to not worry about a job."

[Rachel976]

Poor people have changed since my dad was a kid. Back then, they did as best they could, and were very different.

The 1930s poor:

1. True. I guess my dad’s family did not pay income taxes during the Depression.
2. False. No crime at all in their poor neighborhood, and my dad never so much as stole a stick of gum.
3. False. My dad’s dad worked in a tool factory, producing some widget, albeit at a low wage.
4. False. Everyone belonged to a two-parent family.
5. False: My grandparents certainly doted on their son.
6. False: No alcohol. No drugs.
7. False: The primary goal of raising my dad was to get him through childhood in health, instill good values, and admitted to college.

One more difference you didn’t mention: the sense of entitlement we see today versus 1930s. Even though my dad’s parents did not take “Relief,” those who did looked upon it as a last resort, and for a short time.

Summary: The attitudes and behavior of yesterday’s poor, in general, were superior to those of today, again generally speaking, and explains much of the poor outcomes of the later group.

[ClaraC]

You've got some REAL misconceptions, lifeexplorer.

I suggest you read Hand to Mouth by Linda Tirado. It's short, an easy read, and actually quite entertaining.

Can I ask you what experience you actually have with the "working poor"?

And a follow up question - "they produce nothing"? You know that experiment. Take out the highest paid worker in a company and see how long it will be before they're missed and needed.

Take out the lowest paid. They're missed in 15 minutes.

[CCbaxter]

Because Jesus tells me to.

[TristramShandy]

Republicans: I got mine, screw everybody else.

[rstevens62]

Without 'poor people' very few large companies today would be able to produce and distribute anything, factory workers, truck drivers, people who stock shelves, cashiers who ring up your purchases, etc)...


Think about it, if there was NO group of people willing to work for minimum wages or low amount of pay...what would that look like? Capitalism could not really thrive or even exist.

[rantiquity]

Originally Posted by lifeexplorer

Please explain to me why anybody should have sympathy for the poor:

1. They don’t pay taxes but take in all the benefits.
2. They commit most of violent crimes including murder by number and by ratio.
3. They don’t produce anything.
4. They have the highest single motherhood rate.
5. They don’t take care of their children.
6. They have the highest alcohol and drug abuse by number and by ratio.
7. They don’t care about education.

I understand #1 as they are poor and don’t have money, but the rest points are inexcusable for being poor.

I think you just described the rioters in Portland and Seattle.

[OpinionInOcala]

So, I have less objective sympathy for folks who knowingly put themselves into a situation where negative outcomes are all but assured, as well as folks who make zero effort to alleviate their own misfortune where applicable. There's a distance between such people and, say, the disabled, or children (who by virtue of their birth have no control over their family circumstances), etc. I also understand that, as my grandmother used to say, "you can't save everybody." But there's a difference between acknowledging the intrinsic merit of granny's view on reality and simply not giving a good god damn in the broadest possible sense, because when you don't care at all, you will inherently cause harm to others at some point in the absence of your living a completely self-sustaining, autonomous lifestyle off-the-grid. The question is to what degree should there exist a mandate (compulsion) to participate in the so-called social contract. That's for a different discussion, however, but the answer at a minimum is a nonzero number unless you're truly one of the aforementioned off-the-grid'ers, because otherwise you begin the argument knee-deep in the most obvious sort of hypocrisy.

[BoBromhal]

Originally Posted by lifeexplorer

Please explain to me why anybody should have sympathy for the poor:

1. They don’t pay taxes but take in all the benefits.
2. They commit most of violent crimes including murder by number and by ratio.
3. They don’t produce anything.
4. They have the highest single motherhood rate.
5. They don’t take care of their children.
6. They have the highest alcohol and drug abuse by number and by ratio.
7. They don’t care about education.

I understand #1 as they are poor and don’t have money, but the rest points are inexcusable for being poor.

First, do you believe in God?

Second, you are providing some potentially accurate statements, but also some sweeping generalities - they don't take care of their children or care about education? All of them?