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Why Do the Poor Stay Poor?
Townhall.com ^ | December 8, 2010 | John Stossel

Posted on 12/08/2010 4:19:34 AM PST by Kaslin

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To: chickadee

The Mexican farmer has little reason to try to build complex infrastructure because a corrupt politician can take it all away, often using antiquities laws. That keeps productivity low unless they leave the country and head north.


41 posted on 12/08/2010 5:17:35 AM PST by tbw2 (Freeper sci-fi - "Sirat: Through the Fires of Hell" - on amazon.com)
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To: Condor51

“Huh? Stossel met Hernando de Soto? Wow, he must be really really REALLY old.”
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Or there was a REAL fountain of youth, who knew?


42 posted on 12/08/2010 5:23:58 AM PST by RipSawyer
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To: frposty

You stay that way because modesty is a virtue?


43 posted on 12/08/2010 5:27:15 AM PST by RipSawyer
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To: DH

Very true. We are loosing property rights, both from the state and by the banks (title fraud).


44 posted on 12/08/2010 5:36:46 AM PST by redgolum ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
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To: Kaslin
It ain't easy, but with the help of the lottery and welfare they manage to stay in poverty. . . . And of course stay the hell out of school. . . .
45 posted on 12/08/2010 5:41:36 AM PST by DeaconRed (This is subject to change at any time! ! ! !. When Voter thinks up a good one. . .)
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To: DH
IIRC, I read that the Founder's, when writing the Constitution, originally started with: “pursuit of property” but ended with “pursuit of happiness”.

Clearly you are right, the government owns our property forever, through the tax system.

46 posted on 12/08/2010 5:43:46 AM PST by Tahoe3002
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To: Kaslin
Birth rate for impoverished people is about 10 times that of prosperous people.

They have nothing better to do, I guess...

Aid mostly decreases death rate, and increases birth rate but does NOTHING to change the economic infrastructure.

Malthus ALWAYS wins that one.

47 posted on 12/08/2010 5:48:28 AM PST by Huebolt (It's not over until there is not ONE DEMOCRAT HOLDING OFFICE ANYWHERE. Not even a dog catcher!)
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To: Hardastarboard
"In America, you stay poor by being lazy and by doing the same stupid things over and over again."

Not exactly true anymore. The government takes so much, its very hard to move up into another tax bracket.

48 posted on 12/08/2010 5:57:04 AM PST by Celtic Cross (I AM the Impeccable Hat. (AKA The Pope's Hat))
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To: Kaslin
The issue about property rights does not apply in the US, yet we have plenty of "poor" people, or more accurately people who have no interest in doing anything beyond collecting their welfare checks. Attitude, energy, and intelligence play a big part in success.

As far as the Third World poor, there are likely many of them with lots of intelligence and drive, and the system makes it very hard for them to get anywhere. The system will not easily be changed because the Elites of those countries like it that way -- they don't WANT business competition from the non-Elite, so they purposefully make it hard for somebody without "connections" to prosper.

49 posted on 12/08/2010 6:00:19 AM PST by PapaBear3625 ("It is only when we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything" -- Fight Club)
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To: chickadee

But do we really own property when the local government can step in and take it away if we fail to pay taxes on it every year ?

People rant about income taxes, but at least those taxes are only paid once — at the time the income is received. You spend what is left over (after you’ve paid taxes on that income) on property, and then you have to pay taxes on the property every year forever ? Usually with no control over what value some faceless bureaucrat assigns to your property ? To me, that makes property taxes the most evil of all taxes.


50 posted on 12/08/2010 6:02:07 AM PST by Kellis91789 (There's a reason the mascot of the Democratic Party is a jackass.)
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To: Tahoe3002

The poor stay poor because they have lost the ability to plan for the future or even hope for a future. Everything is in the now—they want instant gratification—if given money they spend it hoping to buy something that will make them happy. A new flat screen TV or a Boob Job, or new toy. It never lasts as things can not give one lasting satisfaction. The Middle Class and Rich know they must sacrifice for the future, to build a life, a business, a dream. Short term pain for long term gain. What is needed is HOPE.


51 posted on 12/08/2010 6:02:40 AM PST by Forward the Light Brigade (Into the Jaws of H*ll)
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To: Tahoe3002
Sad but true, because of...

EMINENT DOMAIN

...In my opinion, a very very very bad law.

52 posted on 12/08/2010 6:03:46 AM PST by Celtic Cross (I AM the Impeccable Hat. (AKA The Pope's Hat))
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To: Forward the Light Brigade

I’ve had enough ‘hope’, and change, to last a lifetime.


53 posted on 12/08/2010 6:05:03 AM PST by Celtic Cross (I AM the Impeccable Hat. (AKA The Pope's Hat))
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To: catman67

What you want something to succeed you spend tax dollars to support it, what you want to end, you tax. So we give money to the poor and them wonder why it expands and grows as we tax the wealthy and wonder why their numbers grow fewer. Ask yourself this; does Mexico give aid to their poor citizens? Why does Mexico have as many millionaires as the USA? What do they know that we don’t know? Mexicans are some of the hardest working folks out there.


54 posted on 12/08/2010 6:07:39 AM PST by Forward the Light Brigade (Into the Jaws of H*ll)
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To: chickadee

Is there any habitable land on earth that is not taxed?


55 posted on 12/08/2010 6:09:23 AM PST by DUMBGRUNT (The best is the enemy of the good!)
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To: Kaslin

Bumo


56 posted on 12/08/2010 6:16:42 AM PST by Incorrigible (If I lead, follow me; If I pause, push me; If I retreat, kill me.)
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To: Kaslin

Bump for later.


57 posted on 12/08/2010 6:21:49 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("If you touch my junk, I'm gonna have you arrested.")
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To: Kaslin
Partially correct, but means nothing without the adherence to our Constitution.

The IDEA that our Rights come from God, not the government, and are protected by the Constitution, including freedom of speech, gun ownership, property ownership are the reasons that the USA has the been the home of prosperity.

This is the reason the the TEA Party resonates today, the return to the respect for the principles of Constitution.

58 posted on 12/08/2010 6:25:08 AM PST by USS Alaska
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To: MeneMeneTekelUpharsin
I would also Posit that poverty is a matter of perception.

I would suggest that the native Americans and other native peoples around the world that lived as hunter gatherers were not poor, in fact until they came in contact with the west most were perfectly happy and many probably believed that they had everything.

59 posted on 12/08/2010 6:25:45 AM PST by TexasFreeper2009 (Obama = Epic Fail)
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To: wintertime
I would suggest that not all and not even a majority have to be “a morally well-grounded and honest people” just those that are afforded the privilege to vote.

People always forget that when this country was founder only property owners were allowed to vote.

Things started to go downhill the minute they let “everyone” vote. Voting should be a privilege that has to be earned.

60 posted on 12/08/2010 6:31:23 AM PST by TexasFreeper2009 (Obama = Epic Fail)
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