Posted on 08/24/2009 10:25:00 AM PDT by freed0misntfree
IMAGINE GETTING A bee sting; then imagine getting six more. You are now in a position to think about what it means to be poor, according to Charles Karelis, a philosopher and former president of Colgate University.
In the community of people dedicated to analyzing poverty, one of the sharpest debates is over why some poor people act in ways that ensure their continued indigence. Compared with the middle class or the wealthy, the poor are disproportionately likely to drop out of school, to have children while in their teens, to abuse drugs, to commit crimes, to not save when extra money comes their way, to not work.
To an economist, this is irrational behavior. It might make sense for a wealthy person to quit his job, or to eschew education or develop a costly drug habit. But a poor person, having little money, would seem to have the strongest incentive to subscribe to the Puritan work ethic, since each dollar earned would be worth more to him than to someone higher on the income scale. Social conservatives have tended to argue that poor people lack the smarts or willpower to make the right choices. Social liberals have countered by blaming racial prejudice and the crippling conditions of the ghetto for denying the poor any choice in their fate. Neoconservatives have argued that antipoverty programs themselves are to blame for essentially bribing people to stay poor.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Exactly! Bad money chases out good & bad time/effort chases out good.
I lived in Columbus ohio years ago. I watched women, yes black women with food stamps and gold on all fingers, ears and around their necks. No not little wimpy gold jewelry, big bold gold....driving cadillacs and using foodstamps! Because they didn’t want to get out and work, plain and simple. Deny it all you want. Call me a racist, I really don’t care. I was a single parent, worked more than one job, and PULLED my way up. I don’t feel sorry for them. They live in the ‘gimme’ mindset. And teach it to their children, generation after generation. Why? Becaue it is taught to them by their ‘leaders’.
Are they sitting outside their mudhut, face covered with flies, no power, no running water, no food, waiting for a truck to come by to throw them a bag of corn?
Or do they have a Section-8 apartment, utility stipend, food stamps, new shoes, x-box, cable tv?
There will always be a bottom 10% and none of them live in America
Sorry. I could only read the first page.
To read any more from these Ivy League idiots who know NOTHING about why the poor are poor would make me puke.
because the government pays them to stay poor and anything more would require ‘work’ from people who have been taught they are victims and are “entitled”. Why work for “the man” when politicians and “civic leaders” say you are owed a living by “the man”? Why would you lower yourself to that?
It's been said the bottom 10% of America is still better off than 90% of the rest of the world.
Why? Because the taxpayers bankroll that 10%s lifestyle, and thus pay for them to not work.
If an alien came down from space and I was forced to explain the system to him, there is no way I could portray it in a way that appeared logical.
My grandparents believed that hard work and education (even self-education) would take them and their children out of poverty. They never believed they were victims (”stop your bloody blubbering” was the family catch phrase), and they believed that anything was possible in America.
Today, kids are told to feel sorry for themselves, that the deck is stacked against them, that America is a place filled with discrimination that only affords breaks to the rich. With such loser mentality preached at them from the cradle, what hope do they have to advance? With no hope, drugs, sex and gangs are what they turn to.
I think in some cases, it’s a “beat a dog down enough and he’ll stay down”. I don’t know why exactly it happens, but it does happen. I have an aunt in this situation - always has the “what’s the use in trying?” attitude.
It’s an old theory, I’ve seen it efore, can’t say where.
the writer has no statistics and no proof tyo back up anything he says.
the more of a painful...thing one has the less likely to do anything about any one problem...’
No proof to back that up. It’s just a statement of theory. Not even theory -— a random thought.
Also says, ‘the more we have of (something) the less any additional unit means...’ Not true. Author has no statistics and no proof.
We are in a serious drought here and I have two horses and a stack of hay bales and every one of those bales means a lot to me.
At any rate, it’s just a poke at conservatives saying people should work for their welfare...or just work.
People can get out of poverty by being surrounded by others, and a culture, of a work ethic.
Another point -— what’s poverty? I know a lot of people who romanticize the Native Americans, but look at how they lived on the plains for instance. Open fires to cook on, made their own clothes, no air conditioning, walked or rode everywhere, etc. etc. Young men were encouraged to endure cold, hunger and thirst. We would call that extreme poverty.
My answer would be, culture is everything. Short of outright starvation, your culture rewards or discourages all you do.
I think you have that backwards. IQ is a predictor of socio-economic status. Being intelligent is no guaranty of prosperity, but being mentally challenged is a certain path to living at the bottom of the economic scale.
That is the truth.
If an alien came down from space I’d ask him to find me a planet we could colonize
No, this is NOT a “good explanation for the persistence of poverty”
First of all, “poverty” is a completely relative term; what’s “poor” in America is upper middle class in many countries.
Secondly, “The poor will always be with us.”. No matter WHAT you do, someone MUST be on the bottom rung of the ladder ... and they will then be considered “poor”.
Thirdly, “All analogies limp”. This piece is nothing BUT analogies. Like the emperor’s new suit of clothes, it is spun out of thin air.
Finally, the author completely ignores all the data that contradicts his conclusions, saying the results of those studies are “ambiguous”. This is the academic equivalent of “Oh, yeah? Sez you!”
By the way, I about wet my pants when I read his conclusion that “The leading cause of poverty is POVERTY.”
I stand in awe of such brilliance.
And you know, they'll sit and eat that bag of corn, and wait for the next truck, because they know it's going to come.
I watch some of this stuff, write my checks once in a while for a freakin' water well, etc. but have to wonder, why don't they get off their duffs and dig a well?
Or gather wood and boil their water at least? How about distilling it? Lord knows they have plenty of sunshine to do the job, and time.
Yeah, I thought about that, but since Mrs. Slim used to do the testing at the local school it was turned around in my mind. The SES was a known quantity prior to the determination of IQ.
***The poor are usually troubled by lower IQ’s, lower impulse control...***
When I had no money and got a job in a steel fabrication shop I noticed two types of workers there.
Those like me, glad to have a job and committed to stability, and those who would work for a few months, save lots of money, then quit and party for several weeks till the money was gone, then come back begging for a job again.
Thats an idea. Take these inner-city punks and put them on a 4-week cattle drive on beans and saddle sores. Maybe they’ll have a better understanding of things when they reach the end.
A few years ago, I renovated and resold a house. Next door was a rental house owned by a Chinese immigrant. He came to this country in 1984 with $40 to work at the restaurant of a family friend. He slept in the back-room of the place, worked as a dishwasher and server, worked as a landscaper when he wasn’t working at the restaurant, and saved every penny. He bought a house, fixed it up and rented it out, then another, and another, and now owns 6 apartment buildings, 12 rental houses, 2 strip malls, and a large office building downtown. He’s probably worth more than 20 million dollars. Here’s a guy who took charge of his destiny, and still talks about all the amazing opportunities available to become rich. He still lives in a very modest house, and drives a 10 year old truck, too.
They ate the seed corn. They ate the breeding pairs of cattle, pigs and chickens, they stripped the bark from their fruit trees.
Then they are unable to feed themselves.
Its all the fault of colonialism. I mean, really, what else is there to blame? me?
Here in the United States we have fully paid-for public education (including kindergarten, lunches, day care, etc.) $zillions in scholarship money (plus state-subsidized colleges) for people without means, medicaid, welfare, food stamps, Section 8 housing, etc., etc., freaking etc.
The only way you can fail to escape “poverty” in the United States is by being flat-out stupid, a lazy worthless load, or both.
So exactly where in Africa is this simpleton Karelis talking about?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.