[Alissa]

I think there is a very sad perception by many conservatives that poor people are all lazy, welfare recipients. My problem is stereotyping one class of people: the poor, especially the working poor. Bad things can happen to really good people and they can't help if they are poor, i.e. bad health, losing a spouse, accidents, etc. BTW - the laziest people I've seen are the trust fund babies - talk about an "entitlement" class.

[RavenATB]

"I think there is a very sad perception by many conservatives that poor people are all lazy, welfare recipients."

I think this is a grotesque overstatement. I'm a conservative who grew up as a liberal Democrat in a Midwest farm town where poverty was a rather common economic state. I grew up in a low income household. Few of my friends and/or school mates were any better off, financially. When I became an adult I had other exposures to low income families.

I don't think that all poor Americans are lazy, good-for-nothing, welfare recipients. I just think that such labels fit a significant percentage of those people. Why? Because I grew up among them, I've known a great many of them, I've spent a great deal of time trying to help some of them, and...I've been there.

Stereotypes frequently become stereotypes because they're based in reality...certainly not for "everyone" in the group...but a great percentage.