Vehicle: Truth springs from argument amongst friends.
Location: I love a dog. He does nothing for political reasons.
Posts: 19,859
Lack of oppurtunities, education, emotional problems, intelligence, economy, greed, lack of drive, different than so called normal social values, etc. all lead to the so called poor people. Silly to point to one issue among many.
Why don't you come on out to Houston, I'll show you what poor looks like. We have slums that go on for miles.
I think the worst poverty I have seen is in the chicken raising country along the Texas/Arkansas border. The slums outside of Pilgrim Pride's huge chicken guts rendering plant sit in a stink that is indescrible. The streams run with dead chicken heads bobbing in the water. The people who live there are Mexicans who escape one hell to find another, black people who have lived like this for generations, and poor whites who just seem to know no other life. They all have jobs. I'd like to see some of you Mercedes Benz owners make it on $250 a week, because that is what minimum wage pays.
People are poor because they are ignorant.
__________________
Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.
Spend some time in a "poor" country and you'll quickly realize our poor are doing just fine. I'll gladly be a poor American against a middle-class third-world citizen anyday.
Poor people in America are either lazy or have no desire to have money.
__________________ - Brian
1966 w111 250SE Cabriolet - 68,000 miles 1985 w126 Euro 500SE - 33,000 miles 1981 w123 300D - 130,000 miles
1986 Jeep CJ7 5-spd - 43,000 miles
Spend some time in a "poor" country and you'll quickly realize our poor are doing just fine. I'll gladly be a poor American against a middle-class third-world citizen anyday.
Poor people in America are either lazy or have no desire to have money.
I can't comment on the situation of the'poor' in the US but I will say that here we have a social welfare driftnet, when the unemployment benefit is only slightly less than what a person on min wage earns a week I think that this is the basis of the problem. That is not to say that the government is to blame. But it puts in place systems that allow people to be lazy.
If these people were to get into paid work I'm sure that they would soon find the value of hard work and that they can move on up in the financial world.
1. MOST poor people do not think that their present economic condition is linked to their work ethics, or lack thereof.
2. MOST poor people think they are that way because those more 'fortunate' than they have received and have too much.
3. MOST poor people think that all success is 'luck', thereby justifying the word 'fortunate'. They think if they 'wait around' and play the lottery or wait for a rich uncle to die, their ship will come in.
4. MOST poor people think they are victims. There are a legitimate few who are but the masses think that one's bad luck is another's good excuse.
There are legitamate poor people. However, the vast majority are poor by choice. It requires hard work to succeed, a priciple that has long been lost and replaced with welfare and food coupons.
I know just as many poor people as I do successful ones. The ones I know have one thing in common: They do just enough to get by and when their short term goal has been met, they slack off until the next 'crisis'. I know a roofer who only works when his beer money runs out. Screw the rent and utilities. He will not work until he runs out of money. The dude could knock down 60 grand a year working 3-4 days per week.
So, in conclusion: Are poor people lazy? Yes, most of them are.
I have to somewhat agree. No other country in the world offers an individual so many opportunities to be more than they are financially. But who can define what poor is? If you're used to a life that includes driving a new Bentley, then your situations change and you are forced to a life driving a new Honda Accord, you might think you've become poor. But, someone driving a 20 yr. old Toyota now is able to drive the same new Honda Accord, they could very well feel they are no longer poor. Yet, using POS's post, the 20 yr. old Toyota is wealthy in some countries.
I don't mind helping people legitimately down on their "luck", that's what compassion is, but then again, you'd be hard pressed to find 10 people to agree on what "legitimate" is.
But I have to go back to the original quoted post. If someone fully capable complains about their financial situation and looks/points first to everything other than what THEY can do to fix it, then I'm sorry, I have little to no compassion for them.
Someone else sort of stated it, I'll state it again. A majority of Americans have become lazy. The number of people who put in an honest days work without complaining about it are far and few between when compared to the work ethics of years past. Technology is partially to blame because it's made things easier, it's human nature to strive to gain the most with the least effort. While there's nothing per say wrong with that, we've rested, no, camped out on it. Our problem is that it's becoming more and more socially acceptable.
Aren't we all all of sudden poor (well, most of us) the second we lose our jobs?
Only because ..you put it here...
If you mean being poor in a financial sense then I would argue that poverty is inversely proportional to the amount of risk someone takes to take control over his life. This means the more risks you take the least likely you will be poor. Those risks range from taking an entrepreneurial stand to self development through education and so on. These risks require us to step from a comfort zone which is dictated by routines that make us relatively numb and some people might call it lazy. I must say that this rule applies to people who are in good mental and physical health in general.
Throughout history the rich played on that comfort zone that I mentioned above to control the masses to work for them. The trick is to force them or expose them to the opposite of what I mentioned above. To do so, the rich trickled down their wealth sparingly to build schools that developed people’s skills to the need of the economical environment of the time. This was very true during the industrial revolution to almost this day. The elites went to private schools that taught philosophy, law and business. The soon to be perpetual middle class went to engineering and med schools. The rich could not manage the “poor” (working class) directly so a middle class had to step in. To maintain this mechanism the paradigm JOB (Just Over Broke) was instituted to keep everyone in a comfort zone again as described above. Fear had to be the motivator to keep people from exploring what it takes to join the elites. The latter is a long story because there is no one that actually makes people fearful other than themselves.
I don't deny that liberals like to group individuals into abstract groups. I am not hiding from the idiocy of the left's visdion of "the poor" as a static pool of hapless dolts.
I was poor. Now I am not.
That doesn't fit the liberal definition of "the poor".
Dave, I know there is a complete thought in there just trying to get out.
It is not folks that are on the liberal side of the world that have a static view of poor. [It is the NeoCon [New Confused] that believe that Poor=Lazy] If you were 'poor' and have now succeeded that is very good. You are correct that you no longer fit in the liberal definition of "the poor". That is the goal of the liberals, to get EVERYONE out of the definition of “the poor”.
It is the witless right that has tried to paint the poor as "a static pool of hapless dolts" as you call them. Not the liberals. We are too busy trying to help the 75% of those hapless dolts that work 50-60 hours a week at 7-10 bucks an hour and still don't have ample health insurance or an ability to go back to school to try an improve their lot.
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