A small dose of reality: POOR PAY UP (washington post article)

[bussinessilicitos]

i agree with Roc Boy Jada, i remember working in the Bronx and seeing ladies with like 5 kids each picking cans their kids looking like ones in thosecommercials, what part of the game is that.

 

[eight2one]

everybody has a different reason!

 

[mr monday niight]

Good read

 

[ballin all day]

I aint from the US, so my concept of being poor is pretty much different than yours. Lets just say I was watching mtv:true life with my mom and they wereshowing some ghettos in California and this black kid was showing his house around saying how poor he is and like he got nothing, so then my mom goes"Poor?! I wish we had a house like THAT!". And where Im from we are pretty much the middle class.

I know both of the sides, as my father is pretty much rich, owns a house, fancy car and yacht etc. I went to a private HS (that he paid for), but lived almostall my life in the hood area with my moms - we moved to a better place a couple years ago though.

So in my opinion both sides got it somehow wrong. The rich dont know the REAL life, but act like they know, while the poor know how it goes, but often donthave what it takes to change their situation. Where Im from there were so many families with kids that were going nowhere its not even funny. Most of them livein the hood all their lives and dont even know that there is something better for them, and I blame their parents for that. The mentality is pretty simple -"I dont need school and all that BS, cuz Im going to a tech school anyways, cuz I heard you get paid big after you finish up 1 year and become acarpenter". Nobody thinks about going to college, cuz its useless as you can work at 18 or 19 and make money, so its all good. And THAT is the better way,cuz most dont even bother and make "business" on the streets. I blame the parents here for not taking the proper care of the kids and putting somereal values into them. Say I hear stories at the corner store like "my son is so smart, he already skiping school and he is in the 4th grade, hahah"pretty often.

On the other side I know all these people that are well off and somehow I still feel sorry for them. They might have the money, but they know nothing aboutlife. Sometimes when I hear what "problems" they are facing it just makes me sick to my stomach. Most of them are really ignorant too. Maybe its thecase, but in general I just dont like the rich people. I have to admit though that they usually take care of their children, their education and want all thebest for them. They might put their twisted values into the kids, but thats just how it is - thats how they figured the "game", so they pass it on. Ithink in the future it might be even harder, cuz the gap between the rich and the poor might be getting even bigger cuz of all of that.

 

[rexanglorum]

jthagreat wrote:

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let us hope that short sighted politics does not slow down economic growth and the increased standards of living that accompany it.


Rex can you expound upon this? cause what im thinkin (you are saying) is that those suffering now will reap a pay off in the end. (im not truly speakin of a stimulus package or anything in particular) but havin those at the bottom suffer in hopes of it payin off in the future doesnt seem like an acceptable answer cause the same folks who were suffering say 50 years ago are still suffering today.
What I was talking about was an extremely broad, historical and fundamental view of poverty. It is broad and historic because I was talking abouta multi century interval and fundamental because I was addressing the notion that one's gain must be off set by someone else's loss, the zero sumfallacy. The history of the US and the World has shown that when an economy becomes more productive, do to more efficient trading, specialization andinvestment, poverty is reduced in its deep and breadth. Bad and short sighted policies are ones that discourage or prohibit such activities, even minorreduction in economic growth can be very costly in the long run because economic growth grows in a compounding manner, an inefficiency in a given year my notbe widely noticed but repeated over a generation or more and that inefficiency will have cost future generations a good deal in terms of quality of life.

This is all, not of concern to those who are in poverty at the moment, and that issue has to be approached in a different way. That would involve a progressivenegative income tax, legitimate school choice, ending the war on drugs, changing housing policies and lower tariffs and government backed cartels that riseprices on basic commodities.

The progressive negative income tax would help the working poor, it would remove the perverse incentives built into welfare as we have it presently structuredand would get a bigger share of tax dollars allotted to welfare into the hands of the poor instead of bureaucrats. School choice breaks the monopoly thatpublic schools hold over lower income communities and would produce more kids who could at least kid and write and do basic math as well as more kids who couldget a higher education and more skills. Ending the war on drugs would reduce a lot of the crime in poor communities and would also reduce the number ofincarcerations and the damage caused by that.

When it comes to housing, more cities should allow more flexibility in zoning and density restrictions so that the supply of housing, which is very muchconstrained by local regulation and restrictions could begin to better match demand and create lower rents for housing. When it comes to food, price floors onmany basic items are sponsored by government, take that away and see more competitive prices and a lower cost of food. When it comes to other items, many ofthem are made more expensive by trade restrictions, reduce those and see goods made from steel, paper and cotton and other items reduced.


All of these things would make serious difference but I am thinking in terms of economics and not politics. The reality is that most policy decisions arecalculated moves made by those who prize staying in power over actually helping their constituents. Because the poor have very little actual political clout,they are not helped if their being helped conflicts with other interest groups, who have much more clout.

 

[its icharlesi]

dannng good article

 

[roc boy jada]

Most of them live in the hood all their lives and dont even know that there is something better for them, and I blame their parents for that. The mentality is pretty simple - "I dont need school and all that BS, cuz Im going to a tech school anyways, cuz I heard you get paid big after you finish up 1 year and become a carpenter". Nobody thinks about going to college, cuz its useless as you can work at 18 or 19 and make money, so its all good. And THAT is the better way, cuz most dont even bother and make "business" on the streets. I blame the parents here for not taking the proper care of the kids and putting some real values into them.
From what I've actually seen for myself, most of them aren't even concerned with finishing HS.

Yes, some would rather start "business" in the streets and they start doing that crap as early as HS.

On the other side I know all these people that are well off and somehow I still feel sorry for them. They might have the money, but they know nothing about life. Sometimes when I hear what "problems" they are facing it just makes me sick to my stomach. Most of them are really ignorant too. Maybe its the case, but in general I just dont like the rich people.
You have to be joking here. Since they're not complaining about being unable to pay for basic life necessities, they don't know anythingabout life?

Struggling throughout life helps understand what "REAL life" is about?

Because there is no repercussion for crapping out a bunch of kids. The only repercussion is that the rest of society has to shoulder the burden of these kids who are raised in bad situations. As a society, we should be outraged that people on welfare can keep popping out kids and as tax payers, we will be footing the bill. And it doesn't end with welfare checks...prison, legal system, police, etc. Everything. Most of America's problems, in regards to illegal activity, can be traced back to crapping out unwanted kids, or kids you can't effectively raise as a normal human being, and then unleashing them on society.

Solution: mandatory birth control for women on welfare. It'd be a good start. Before you get your government check, you get a Depo shot so you don't crap out little monsters and unleash them on society.
Good points.