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Responding To Claims That Poverty Is Due To Something Other Than Lack Of InitiativeResponding To Claims That Poverty Is Due To Something Other Than Lack Of Initiative
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Subjects > ... > Social Issues Discussion
Someone responded to Should Society Feel Guilty About Poverty claiming causes for poverty other than lack of initiative.
How about TV? How about books? There are plenty of free resources that can teach someone these things.
I don't believe that. Where do they go to buy gas, to buy food, to go to the doctor? OK, maybe the doctor works in a public health clinic, and the welfare office is government run also, but otherwise they are surrounded with working people.
That's the keyword: Being teachable. Being willing to learn. Taking responsibility for learning what needs to be learned.
Oh, and I should mention that one of the few millionaire's sons I know is one of the laziest buggers I've ever met. Despite all his advantages, and an ivy league education, he didn't understand basic things like how to stop chatting before 3am in the morning so he could get enough sleep to not be falling asleep the next day at work.
No question that some people start with advantages that others don't have. However, it's also easy enough to throw away opportunity, plenty of well connected people do it all the time with stupid decisions. Granted, most people probably aren't suited to be president, or congressman. But learning enough to have a decent life is just as attainable today as it was for immigrants a few generations ok.
Plenty of great cheap clothes at the used clothing store. Most of them are less expensive than a 6 pack of beers, or a pack of cigarettes.
Many places spend way too much on public transit. Others make the sacrifice to get a cheap automobile, or motorcycle. No one ever gave me a vehicle, I started with a $200 motorcycle and worked up from there.
Ever tried to make a kid study who was set on not studying? Or try to stop a kid from studying who wanted to study? The parents may, or may not, encourage learning, but the final result is the
Nonsense. First, I have a vehicle because I make the sacrifices necessary to have one. Secondly, where do such people buy food? Where do they get their gas? There is no concentration of poor people in place that is 20 miles away from all jobs. And besides, what about making their own job? How many of us here are employed by Amazon? We're not employed, but we work for Amazon, and we get paid by Amazon. Plenty of libraries with free internet terminals that someone can use to learn about almost anything, and to develop skills too.
Who says anything about the best job? Thats quite a leap from starting out as an 8th generation welfare recipient. I doubt anyone is going to leap from that into the "the best job". I have only flown across the country for an interview once, and that was paid for by the company that interviewed me. But that was only after spending years working up to that point. You're confusing the job people need to be willing to start at with the jobs one can get later through preparation.
I don't have an Ivy League education. Yet I am semi-retired more than 20 years earlier than my father. My father was able to help me with part of the costs of one year of University. But at the University, many doors were slammed in my face because I didn't meet their GPA requirements. My own choices had squandered the opportunity before I even arrived.... It didn't matter that I had preparations other than my GPA to show I belonged in the degree program I wanted to take. It didn't matter that I was tutoring other students in the very classes that the administration wouldn't let me take. Didn't matter that some professors knew I'd already taught myself more than they had to teach in the undergraduate classes. If the chairman said no, you didn't get in. I fought their system for a couple of semesters, then gave up and made my own opportunities without them.
I'm not a minority, and yet I have experienced first hand unjust limitations and walls being placed in front me. I learned to get around them, and create my own opportunities.
The poverty discussion began discussing people in this country who buy drugs. These problems you mention in other countries are something else entirely. The poorest country I've been to had an average family income of $100 a month. Still the difference between the haves and the have nots often centered in working hard.
Handup is fine. I'm all for micro business programs. All for requiring work to earn a welfare check. Unfortunately, hand ups often degenerate into hand outs that only depend on the person's existence to qualify for it. This is neccessary, because the truly disadvantaged are too rare to justify the the size of our government, and the scope of the grandiose programs foisted upon us.
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