Posted on 08/01/2018 2:36:57 PM PDT by Kaslin
Poverty is no mystery, and it's easily avoidable. The poverty line that the Census Bureau used in 2016 for a single person was an income of $12,486 that year. For a two-person household, it was $16,072, and for a four-person household, it was $24,755. To beat those poverty thresholds is fairly simple. Here's the road map: Complete high school; get a job, any kind of a job; get married before having children; and be a law-abiding citizen.
How about some numbers? A single person taking a minimum wage job would earn an annual income of $15,080. A married couple would earn $30,160. By the way, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, less than 4 percent of hourly workers in 2016 were paid the minimum wage. That means that over 96 percent of workers earned more than the minimum wage. Not surprising is the fact that among both black and white married couples, the poverty rate is in the single digits. Most poverty is in female-headed households.
Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign garnered considerable appeal from millennials. These young people see socialism as superior to free market capitalism. Capitalism doesn't do well in popularity polls, despite the fact that it has eliminated many of mankind's worst problems, such as pestilence and gross hunger and poverty. One of the reasons is that capitalism is always evaluated against the nonexistent, non-realizable utopias of socialism or communism. Any earthly system, when compared with a utopia, will not fare well. Indeed, socialism sounds good but, when practiced, leads to disaster. Those disasters have been experienced in countries such as the USSR, China, most African nations and, most recently, Venezuela. When these disasters are pointed out, the excuse is inadequacies of socialist leaders rather than socialism itself. For the ordinary person, free market capitalism, with all of its warts, is superior to any system yet devised to deal with our everyday needs and desires.
Here are a couple of questions: Does an act clearly immoral when done privately become moral when done collectively? Does legality or majority consensus establish morality? Before you answer, consider that slavery was legal; South African apartheid was legal; the horrendous Stalinist, Nazi and Maoist purges were legal. Clearly, the fact of legality or a majority consensus cannot establish morality.
You might ask, "If you're so smart, Williams, what establishes morality?" That's easy, and you tell me when I make the wrong step. My initial premise is that we own ourselves. You are your private property, and I am mine. Self-ownership reveals what's moral and immoral. Rape is immoral because it violates private property. So is murder and any other initiation of violence. Most people probably agree with me that rape and murder are immoral, but what about theft? Some Americans would have a problem deciding whether theft is moral or immoral.
Let's first define what theft is. A fairly good working definition of theft is the taking by force of one person's property and the giving of it to another to whom it does not belong. Most Americans think that doing that is OK as long as it's done by government. We think that it is OK for Congress to take the earnings of one American to give to another American in the form of agricultural subsidies, business bailouts, aid for higher education, food stamps, welfare and other such activities that make up at least two-thirds of the federal budget. If I took some of your earnings to give to a poor person, I'd go to jail. If a congressman did the same thing, he'd be praised.
People tend to love a powerful government. Quite naturally, a big, powerful government tends to draw into it people with bloated egos, people who think they know more than everyone else and have little hesitance in coercing their fellow man. Nobel laureate Friedrich Hayek explained why corruption is rife in government: "In government, the scum rises to the top.
Bttt.
5.56mm
“and for a four-person household, it was $24,755”
The people who set these levels should be exposed.
Cost of living isn’t that high, here, but I would say the poverty line should be at least $4K per month, and perhaps $4.5K, for a four-person household.
Any less and somebody is walking around nekkid and malnourished.
Unfortunately those with low IQs violate all of Dr William’s dictates and by having excessive birth rates project the problems into the future with little hope of changing the trend.
Bump
Mr. Williams, as usual, is correct. You follow this patteren and there is a 97 percent chance you will not be poor.
It’s a harsh thing to say, but I think government welfare programs should be available to an individual for no more than 5 years (anyone can fall on hard times and need some help). But if you’re on for more than 5 years, then sterilization should be mandatory for any further aid. This whole multi-generations on Welfare trend needs to stop.
A government big enough to give you everything you want, is a government big enough to take away everything that you have.
some have attributed this to Thomas Jefferson, but I could not verify that. . . it still makes an excellent point.
Friedrich Hayek explained why corruption is rife in government: “In government, the scum rises to the top.” Sad but true.
Walter William is brilliant.
Gee whiz. I wonder about the race, gender, orientation and MLB team loyalty of Walter Williams, since only those superficials things determine whether Walter Williams is to be hated or not. /Just kidding. Just silly nonsense from dumb traitors.
And those who grow up subjected to violence buck heavy odds if they graduate highschool.
bkmk
Deep need can pull children out of high school for the sake of the burger flipping.
When I first moved into the Near NW side of Chicago only 50% of the people had a TV. Less than 30% had a telephone or car. They were poor. 4 years later I came back from Vietnam.
70% had a TV and probably 60% had a telephone. They were poor.
Now all poor people have a smartphone. Many homeless hang around my office building. They all have smartphones. They can watch TV on their phone. But mostly they watch Youtube.
All poor people with a home have TV. 90% have a car.
But it seems that far more are homeless now than in the 60s.
About the same number have alcohol and depression problems. Far more have drug problems.
One can’t force a destiny through mere humanly manipulable circumstances. This is why I am even slightly skeptical of Williams. Intermediate factors don’t tell us how they got there in turn. The recipe doesn’t start there — in fact it starts with spiritual things, which is something the Salvation Army has demonstrated for 150 years.
Holding violence constant the biggest determinant of success or failure is intelligence. See “The Bell Curve.”
We are dividing into two nations: the cognitive elite and the dull mass. The former have the means for success in life the latter have little chance when measured by any standard.
Deep need is a rare cause of dropping out. The pattern is little concern at home for learning, doing poorly at school and criminal activity are responsible for most of the dropouts.
Poverty stats are bogus anyway. They do NOT include non-cash government benefits such as food stamps, housing, Medicaid, education and free meals for the kiddies, free phones, subsidized utilities, etc. So, a family could have that $24K income plus all their basic needs covered by taxpayers and still be considered to be living in poverty.
Don’t forget all the private charities that provide food, clothing, school supplies, toys, fans, blankets, and here they have a drive to get poor kids bicycles.
Ever watch The First 48? When they film in the projects, the people are often wearing expensive sneakers, have several tatoos, smoke, have nice SUVs, video game equipment, expensive manicures, etc.
I don’t resent poor people having stuff; I just resent being guilted by lies into paying for it.
People living on garbage dumps in 3rd world countries live in poverty. There is no reason for anyone to be hungry in the US unless they are mentally ill/an addict or their parents are abusing or neglecting them.
Um, where are you getting that assertion?
Poverty mindsets are fed from the poverty.
The lower echelons of society are being successively dumb and dumber breeding viciousness and ignorance.
These programs have destroyed the Black family and led to this unstoppable spiral down. Failure in life is generally a consequence of illegitimacy for several reasons which I go into in “Chaos and Mayhem.”
Now 80% of black births are illegitimate. This points to gigantic future problems.
In real life, violence intrudes upon the intelligent and the less than stellar intellects. Either way, the person will most often accomplish little as a student.
The smart ones may overcome and become good learners once removed from the environment they were in.
Which is why I oppose truancy laws, and instead support adult education programs.
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