The 'working poor' scam

Washington Times ^ | 6/02/04 | Thomas Sowell

[kattracks]

BusinessWeek magazine has joined the chorus of misleading rhetoric about "the working poor." Why is this misleading? Let me count the ways.

First of all, Census data show most people who are working are not poor and most people who are poor are not working. The Page One headline on the May 31 BusinessWeek says: "One in 4 workers earns $18,800 a year or less, with few if any benefits. What can be done?"

[alfa6]

Thomas Sowell BUMP

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

[glock rocks]

ping

[John Valentine]

I've noticed that "Business Week" has become one of the most strident and consistently anti-business publications on the racks, rivalled only by "Mother Jones".

It is not unlike the socialist radio program called "Marketplace" in an apparent attempt at irony, aired daily on Public Radio International (and carried on Armed Forces Radio).

[LoudRepublicangirl]

. Creating entitlements for them reduces any need to learn

It's like feeding wild animals. Once you start that they lose their desire to hunt.

[valkyrieanne]

There was an article in the May 24 issue of Barron's magazine (not on line) that talked about the serious "intelligence gap" in education and wages in the US. Sowell is a highly intelligent man (it sounds like he has intelligent kids, too, from his various columns), and he may not appreciate that not everyone in this country has a 110 or more IQ. The Barrons article points out that in this country, we have virtually eliminated all jobs and all educational/vocational job training for those of lower IQ - not retarded, but just not very smart (IQ range 80-99.)

IQ is also highly correlated with income. If people of low-normal intelligence can't find jobs at their skill / intelligence level, it's not surprising that an increasing number of them would be poor, in jail, etc.

[B4Ranch]

>>So we are really talking about one-third of one fourth -- or fewer than 10 percent of the workers -- <<

Analysts are very annoying to people who don't like the facts. Sorry, there's nothing we can do to change their ways.

[KC_for_Freedom]

"the working poor."

Ah yes, like the always increasing "gap" between the rich and poor. Like this is my responsibility?