We need your help here, lightman, so we can all get behind bishop mark end poverty.
Sorry about the paragraphs. Computer was acting balky and the first version posted.
There is a serious problem that exists, not with poverty, but how people who are not poor misunderstand poverty.
To explain, as an example, I knew a young man who was homeless, lived in camps or “squats”, abandoned buildings, and would spare change for a little food and drink, and some marijuana to smoke. And he was fairly comfortable in doing this, though he was intelligent, and hard working when he wanted to be.
Well, a young police officer became fascinated with him, and decided to “redeem” or “reform” him. The officer just knew that with some “help”, the young man could live in an apartment, hold a steady job, become a “useful member of society”, and live a “respectable” life, just like the young police officer did.
And the young police officer was incapable of understanding the simple fact that the homeless man didn’t *want* to live his life like the police officer. He didn’t *want* to live in an apartment, hold a steady job, etc. Zero interest in living like that. Finally the homeless man had to approach a senior police officer to take the young officer to one side and explain to him some facts of life.
Truthfully, there are a large number of people who live in poverty out of choice. But for them, this does not mean to live in filth or deprivation, starvation or disease. Because these are not the same things as just being poor.
So when people talk about “ending poverty”, if they actually understand poverty, they are not really talking about money, but other things. If their idea is to make all poor people middle class, then they are fools.
But if they are talking about the poor having clean water to drink, an acceptable level of sanitation, as much self-determination as most of us like, and some degree of security from crime and violence, these things are not unreasonable.