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In America, The Poor Don't Work
Real Clear Markets ^ | September 10, 2008 | Steven Malanga

Posted on 09/14/2008 3:22:09 AM PDT by a_chronic_whiner

Declaring that it’s becoming “easier to fall into poverty” in America, Barack Obama has laid out an anti-poverty agenda that includes raising the minimum wage, increasing tax credits for low-income wage earners, and enacting legislation to make it easier for workers to start unions.

John McCain would attack poverty by cutting taxes to stimulate the economy and boost opportunity throughout the workforce.

Although their agendas are starkly different, both men make the same fundamental mistake. They declare that labor-force solutions, like higher wages or creating better jobs, will significantly reduce poverty America. But that won’t happen because the vast majority of the impoverished in America don’t work and wouldn’t even if we raised wages or created more jobs. They are in poverty because of social or physical problems or choices in life they’ve made which make it difficult or impossible for them to work. Some have simply chosen not to work. It’s not that our economy doesn’t work for most of the poor, but that most of the poor don’t work.

(Excerpt) Read more at realclearmarkets.com ...


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: economicpolicy; mccainpalin; obamabiden; poverty
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To: Tolik

for your consideration


21 posted on 09/14/2008 5:14:13 AM PDT by NonValueAdded (don't worry, they only want to take water out of the other guy's side of the bucket.)
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To: Alia

If your chosen skill set in life is stoop labor, stoop or starve. Better model for the kids than fat welfare moms and players who father 15 kids and brag.

Faced with starvation, they will find something to do.


22 posted on 09/14/2008 5:35:50 AM PDT by threeoeight
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To: Gaffer

But that is better than minimum wage increases. EIC goes only to folks who do work, correct?


23 posted on 09/14/2008 5:36:50 AM PDT by threeoeight
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To: Gaffer

And “mother’s day” comes once a month — that day when money floods into the community, and into the pockets of guys who have “girlfriends.”


24 posted on 09/14/2008 5:39:48 AM PDT by RJR_fan (Winners and lovers shape the future. Whiners and losers TRY TO PREDICT IT.)
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To: Alia

“There are many with criminal records who make a decision they don’t won’t to go “there” again, and so begin to make tracks with getting their GED, which is a vast improvement.”

Until our society identifies the ex-offenders who really dont’ want to ‘go there’ again, and seriously helps those people out of that life, then there won’t be any improvement.

I’m not sure how you identify the ones who really want to change but if we can find a way it would vastly improve things. Right now it’s tough for those people who want to change to re-enter society.


25 posted on 09/14/2008 5:54:09 AM PDT by webstersII
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To: a_chronic_whiner
We seem to be getting the "to each according to their need" but we have left off "From each according to their ability".
26 posted on 09/14/2008 5:58:00 AM PDT by listenhillary (Palin accomplished more in the PTA than Obama did as a community organizer)
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To: a_chronic_whiner

The only Dem whoever understood any of this was Daniel Patrick Moynihan.


27 posted on 09/14/2008 6:21:10 AM PDT by yazoo
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To: OBXWanderer

“Well, we all know who they will vote for.....” That isn’t necessarily so. This disabled senior citizen does not plan on voting for the one who would enrich me financally the most. I intend to vote for McCain/Palin because they would, overall, do the most good for America.


28 posted on 09/14/2008 7:50:44 AM PDT by tob2 (No retreat!)
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To: a_chronic_whiner
It’s not that our economy doesn’t work for most of the poor, but that most of the poor don’t work. Finally, the truth is written.
29 posted on 09/14/2008 8:02:58 AM PDT by kalee
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To: combat_boots
It also requires doing a much better job helping make ex-convicts—the 700,000 or so mostly men who leave prison each year—more employable. My mother, a retired business woman, was an instructor at a minimun security facility in FL. She taught the young men in her class how to fill out job applications, how to dress and respond to questions when interviewed and other skills that they would need to seek and keep a job. She was always saddened by the stories they had to tell of how they had gotten in prison, but even more so when one of them screwed up and lost his place in her class. She wanted to reach them and help them turn over a new leaf and succeed, but the chances of them doing so were not very good.
30 posted on 09/14/2008 8:14:12 AM PDT by kalee
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To: a_chronic_whiner

“In America, The Poor Don’t Work”

That’s why they’re poor. It’s the same everywhere.


31 posted on 09/14/2008 9:20:42 AM PDT by ViLaLuz (2 Chronicles 7:14)
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To: Alia

While the military is by no means a dumping ground of any sort, OTOH, I have seen over and over again how those who are willing and able (emphasis: willing and able) opt for service as their ticket out of the ‘hood and out of poverty.

If a person can pass the entrance exams, make it through basic, and do the best job he or she can do in whatever is assigned, a person can go far in the military.

There is no one in America who, if willing and able, can’t walk, take a bus, call and 800 number, or send an inquiry off a public computer at the library to a recruiter to get the process going.

This is all to say this is just one way out of poverty for the willing and able. Not only out of financial poverty, but out of living in a culture that has a poverty of values that lead to success and fulfillment in life.

Our nation was begun and populated by the “flight of the willing and able” from England-—and later from the east coast to the western frontier. A person said, “if I have to be an indentured servant for seven years to pay for me and my family’s passage across the ocean, so be it. I’ll get out of this place, pay my debt, and then I’ll make something of myself.”


32 posted on 09/14/2008 9:23:50 AM PDT by fightinJAG (Rush was right when he said: "You NEVER win by losing.")
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To: nobama08

Yes, but somehow I don’t think he was including the voluntary poor in his remarks.


33 posted on 09/14/2008 9:24:39 AM PDT by fightinJAG (Rush was right when he said: "You NEVER win by losing.")
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To: tob2
on voting for the one who would enrich me financally the most.

Since you are voting McCain/Palin, that's fine with me, but could you elaborate on how their opponent, if elected, would "enrich you financially the most"?

34 posted on 09/14/2008 9:52:58 AM PDT by OBXWanderer (Now is the time for all good men [and women] to come to the aid of their country.)
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To: fightinJAG

Why? I always thought He meant there would always be poor people for whatever reason.


35 posted on 09/14/2008 9:54:13 AM PDT by nobama08
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To: threeoeight

There are many types of income that count as “earned income”


36 posted on 09/14/2008 10:00:44 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: OBXWanderer

Tax and spend Democrats would enrich me financially via increased social security/disability benefits. However, there are many more issues to consider in this election, as in every election. I firmly believe that national security should be the top priority. If this country is not secure, then it would be pointless to focus on the other issues.


37 posted on 09/14/2008 12:19:02 PM PDT by tob2 (No retreat!)
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To: nobama08

You know, you are right on that. I didn’t say what I meant to say very clearly.

I was trying to comment on the fact that, although there will be poor with us always, some of the “poor” chose to be poor and therefore they can’t really be accounted for in trying to address the situation of the poor who would like to not be poor.

Okay, did I make it worse? LOL


38 posted on 09/14/2008 5:48:46 PM PDT by fightinJAG (Rush was right when he said: "You NEVER win by losing.")
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To: fightinJAG

I understand. LOL The ones who are poor because of illness or disability are the ones we should help. The lazy, no. In the Bible Paul said if a man doesn’t work, he doesn’t eat. I have no problem with that.


39 posted on 09/15/2008 4:08:44 AM PDT by nobama08
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