Posted on 10/04/2008 8:12:01 AM PDT by george76
A number of readers have taken me to task over my contention ...that most poor people are impoverished by choice. To be clear, I don't mean that one day a person gets up and decides to live in poverty. I believe a person winds up poor because he or she chooses not to succeed.
Truth is, staying above the poverty line is relatively simple. Basically, all that's required is to finish high school, wait until at least age 20 to get married and not have a child out of wedlock. Now how hard is that? Not very, which is why I equate poverty (in most cases) with a conscious set of choices.
William Galston, a former adviser to President Clinton and scholar at the liberal-leaning Brookings Institution, devised that lucid, easy to follow anti-poverty formula, and the data back him up. Fewer than 10 percent of families that follow his blueprint live in poverty, while 79 percent of those who don't follow the three-step plan end up poor.
The value of a high school education is undisputed... However, the role of marriage in avoiding poverty is too often ignored by policy makers and low-income advocates...
That huge oversight must be remedied. The John Edwards' "Two Americas" model of confronting poverty... is outdated and incomplete.
Compared to marriage, the "Two Americas" discussion and its solutions verge on irrelevancy when it comes to creating upward mobility for the poor.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsobserver.com ...
Why is the obvious so hard for some people to grasp? Or accept, is probably closer to the truth. But I guess if we officially acknowledged the obvious, the poverty pimps would be out of business. Good article.
Finish school and get established before you have kids. Duh, eight? It seems easy enough to follow if you’ve been raised in a decent household. It was never an option in my house to do anything else. Blame the parents.
Americans are poor because they choose to live as irresponsible, self-indulgent adolescents. Pretty simple. And then as adolescents they expect the more responsible adults in their lives to bail them out. IN most cases these more responsible adult are taxpayers with whom they are not even acquainted.
The key to avoid poverty is to be born with a brain in the USA.
The keys to avoiding poverty: Keep it in your pants...both your money and your p—ker!
What was left out was a willingness to take risk.
After all, even if one were single and child free and maintaining a lucrative living in an honest position, to prevent personal poverty, one must be willing to risk jail and evade taxes. ; )
Anymore, most will be poor even as productive people whether we want to be or not.
Remember - it was Pontius Pilot who asked the ultimate question..."what is truth" when Truth was standing right in front of him. The obvious is hard to grasp only because we reject truth and embrace the lie of relativism.
Not to be overlooked is: Stay out of jail!
Spending a few years in in prison whether in one term or several, can really wreck a life, financially and emotionally.
Don't buy things you don't need until you can pay cash for them.
Save something from every paycheck.
Show up for work on time every day.
My keys to staying out of poverty:
Finish school even if it’s just high school.
Stay off drugs.
Stay out of jail.
Pay your bills on time.
Develop good work ethics.
There have been poor in the world since the beginning of time and there always will be. Those that want to eliminate the poor have other things in mind and that is basically to enrich themselves......but people don’t look at it that way.
I thought that living as a responsible buyer would be enough. I didn’t count on the government stepping in to be charitable with my money.
The funny thing is- my middle daughter at 23 is finishing her degree to get licensed as a Special Education/Elementary Ed. teacher and is engaged. She has been engaged for two years and people are always asking her when she is getting married, she tells them she will marry after she finishes school and gets a job. I am amazed at how many people do not seem to understand why she hasn’t already married, and act like her plan doesn’t make sense. I am very proud of her, but wonder at the people that think she should be rushing down the aisle.
So is falling off a cliff....that’ll f*ck you up big time.
Amen! Also, the marriage factor needs to be considered too. I encouraged my kids that when they get married (one has) to work hard for at least 3 years before starting a family, in order to establish themselves financially, and/or finish school (higher learning). I find financial problems to be one of the biggest strains on a (relatively) new marriage.
True, that’s a good reason to avoid both.
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.