Do you believe they are a cancer on our society, bleeding our resources, polluting our urban landscape and threatening our security?


What can be done politically to rid America of this abomination; the poor who are feckless, hopeless, lacking self-worth, motivation and any common levels of decency. We cannot afford to let them breed another generation of their kind.

:confused:
I hope you are being sarcastic.
I would not use any of those adjectives for the poor in general.

Maybe some poor people hate being poor too?

I don't believe in sending food to poor nations, or using resources in the wrong way, like just handing food out food in shelters. That is only a disguise, and it does not actually help the poor advance.

I mean, why would we need people who make 6 dollars an hour, and work 12 hours a day anyway? WHO WOULD THAT BENNEFIT? Does it bennefit the poor? Does that help the poor... if not, then who does it help?

We need to start thinking of how we can prevent this social problem. And to not create even more poor people; for that would only increase our crime rates and instability of society.

We should also look at what makes poor people, and not be narrow minded enough to think that they are all just lazy. Just as it is very wrong to believe that a lot of rich people are cold-blooded individuals.

Maybe a whole lot of reading would help, from numerous perspectives, and thus numerous suggestions and theories will be found to help produce the BEST way to prevent there being poor people.

So I half-agree with you. I don't hate the poor, but I hate there being poverty.

:) Thanks for your post. I think a lot more people should focus on this issue.

The poor are a problem. It is interesting. I was working on the Forbes 400 issue of Forbes magazine this morning. One article addressed the Forbes One Billion, the billion poorest people on earth. Forbes wants to look at constructive solutions to the problem. Finding workable ones would benefit all.

Are you freakin serious?

There are far too many people who have nothing to lose. They go through generations with no decent jobs, no decent education, and no prospect of anything better. Is it any wonder they lack motivation and self worth.

Who created the urban ghettos, maybe that is the place to start?

I don’t believe that there is a universal answer, but certainly in America we ought to be able to reduce the number greatly. In a capitalist society there will always be poor people.

I believe that there is a certain class of people who completely ignore the poor politically and believe that caring for the poor in strictly a charitable issue. That is, government in helping the poor is simply a matter of government theft.

Your initial statement was more harsh than I think you were meaning.

I think we (the US, government) need to stop spreading ourselves so thin and getting invovled in every fight in the world and focus much more of our attention on issues raised within our borders. We are a young but strong country and need to create a foundation for ourselves in order to stay the course. That starts at home in the poverty stricken areas, with medical care, with immigration, etc

[QUOTE=Dark_crow] They go through generations with no decent jobs, no decent education, and no prospect of anything better. Is it any wonder they lack motivation and self worth.

QUOTE]

I have to take some offense at this.

I have my Bachelor's Degree and am currently working on two Masters simultaneously. I work as a teacher, because that's where I feel I'm supposed to be.

I have a family of 5, and due to a whole slew of reasons, my wife does not work outside our home.

However, I have tremendous self-worth (most of the time), and am highly motivated.

Yet there are times when we've had to borrow money just to eat, and the way I see it, that makes us rather poor. We don't live beyond our means, but our means are rather meager.

Yet I've chosen this career path, not out of a desire to be wealthy, but rather out of a desire to touch the lives of our children in a positive and meaningful way.

So what would you have them do with me?

I hate people who are unmotivated and expect the world to bow to their every need. I hate people who have a false sense of entitlement. I hate people who place no value on themselves, their self-worth, or their accomplishments. Am I describing poor people? What about Paris Hilton, she's not poor and she fits the bill pretty well.

There are poor people who are poor because they refuse to work. I don't care much for them. There are poor people who are poor because of life circumstances which are beyond their control. Those are the people who need help.

I worked with the poor for six years when I was a social worker, and they really are a pain in the rear end to people with good solid middle class values! I had all I could take years ago! All the depression and ignorance and self defeating behavior of the poor! They couldn't make plans and follow through! Just endless suffering which was they modeled for their children. Drugs, alcohol, whoring, crime, malnutrition, hopelessness, depression...

But, your question begs the question... what is the meaning of *decency*. Who is "decent"? I know American politicians, especially the fascists in the White House, are not decent human beings. Are religionists who subtlely send a hate message decent? Are corporate heads decent? And so on!

First, define poor? What is the income of the poor? What level of assets?

Second, do I find poor people to be a cancer on our society, bleeding our resources, polluting our urban landscape and threatening our security?


Depends. Are they?

There are some poor people who are working HARD to be independent, and there are others who are professional couch potatoes.

The farmer who is up at 3am milking the cows and plowing the fields and goes to sleep at 10 pm after a hrd days work of providing for his family has NOTHING BUT MY RESPECT. The urban father working three jobs to put food on the table for his family deserves respect and, where possible, help.

The professional welfare recipient who's not interested in getting a job because the gubment covers all his expenses? The welfare mommy who has more babies for no other reason than so that her welfare benefits will increase... that's a whole other story.

And "poor people" are not a threat to national security. ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS are a threat to national security, by force of the fact that we don't know who or where they are or what their intentions are in being in this country illegally. The fact that most illegal immigrants are poor doesn't make poor people the threat.

Finally, in most cases it is not the poor that are causing the problems. In most cases it is those who are trying to "fix" things that are the cause of the problem. Usually by creating more poor and by creating an environment in which those who are poor have no desire to make themselves a better life.

In short, it isn't poor people who are the threat. It's LIBERALS who are "a cancer on our society, bleeding our resources, polluting our urban landscape and threatening our security?"

Now... as for what can be done to rid the country of this abomination of "liberalism"... try voting.

Elliot

[QUOTE=kindj]I find it interesting that so often people only relate to the world through their own personal experience.

Why does someone refuse to work, isn’t that what people on a union strike do. Has it ever occurred to you that ‘Something” in their life may have influenced them…like their upbringing and schooling?

Not at all. For the last few years, I've been working in a school district where the poverty level is about 75%, give or take accounting for varying definitions of the poverty line.

For several years before that, I worked for a non-profit agency that dealt exclusively with the impoverished.

As I told Choux, I read a book that sort of opened my eyes to the way the poor see the world, which is very different than the way the middle class (whoever THEY are) see it, which is different still than the way the upper class sees the world. It's by Ruby Payne, and it's called "A Framework for Understanding Poverty." It's one of the few I've read that actually had anything constructive, beneficial, and useful to it. It leaves out the stinkin' politics of the whole thing and focuses on the different worldviews. Give it a read sometime, I think you'll like it. It's easy to read, and very enlightening.

Like Wittgenstein, I don’t have to define anything, just hop in your car and drive to the nearest urban Ghetto… for you I guess that may be Harlem.

The poor that are reliant on governmental systems are a class that will not easily be corrected. That is truly a problem but not one that needs focus on. We need to focus on providing for the people trying to make a difference. Up the requirements of welfare, shroter the time allowed on welfare, create a system to catch the offenders of the system, etc. We should be putting more of our resources into strengthening the middle class that will very shortly not exist. They are hardworking and dependable but are not rightly compensated. They fall into many "grey" areas for assistance and/or cannot get health care because they are choosing food and shelter over pricey health care. We need to abolish poverty that exists due to mental illness or extenuating circumstances. We should not have elderly or young children in houses that have no food or heat, not in this country that spends trillions of dollars on aid to foreign country (not that that is wrong) or on national defense or on building a freakin wall across the Mexico border!!

I make my distinction between the working class and the underclass (poor). I prefer a world in which everybody is given a fair chance to make something of themselves. Where everybody has got something to lose. The poor can never be the engine of their own social change because they have nothing to lose. They never have been, they never will be. Only the rich can be the engine of social change.

Seems to me, with that kind of attitude, Dark_ Crow may be the poorest person of all. I am amazed at the number of times the word "hate" is in this post.

If the poor is as large a percentage of the population as many say, think of the tremendous power in their hands if they all simply register to vote and DO IT. That in itself could be tremendously constructive.

On the flip side, if we handed them all copies of some Karl Marx reading material...