[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.

[Alissa]

Perhaps you're right, but I just can't stereotype all poor people as lazy no-good welfare recipients vs. the working poor. Your life experiences are different than mine. I grew up outside Washington, DC. Our little neighborhood was composed of low income working people, but their kids are doing fine today and earning good incomes.

Maybe I've been fortunate in my lack of exposure to lazy welfare recipients and I'm the one who is naive. In my world the poor have been more nobler in that they've made great sacrifices to improve the lives of their children.