Posted on 12/05/2018 9:05:41 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Neal Boortz has a saying that holds truth.
“If you see a person, standing on a corner, twirling a
board with advertising on it, That person has made some poor choices in his or her life.”
Habits can be broken and there are many stories of people who have turned their lives around. None of those people were lazy and none blamed the system, racism, bigotry, or bad luck.
They admitted their own faults, corrected them and lived “happily ever after.”
I still recommend Military Service to those who question their future. One learns teamwork, responsibility, respect,
and, in many cases, a valuable skill to market after their service is complete. Just the habit of getting up in the morning is a start!
Both opinions are inaccurate and therefore inadequate to explicate the ultimate reason.
This is where I part company with the Cookie-Cutter Conservatives.
There are poor finally because this is a fallen, finite world. Not all poor are self-made failure stories, and not all rich are self-made success stories.
The poor you will always have with you:
As an ordained minister, I am going to give more credence to Jesus the Christ than to Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh.
Although both claim in their differing ways to be Christians, neither one really believes in the fallen nature of Man and this Earth. They functionally believe that Conservatism Saves.
I cite them because they are prominent voices that espouse a carnal philosophy loosely clothed in Christian garb.
I am a lifelong conservative, but that is not my salvation - in this life or the next.
Walter Williams knows how to avoid poverty.
Immaturity, selfishness, and lack of fore sight.
Ironically, the three things that also make a felon. Go figure.
“I can’t get any job for less than $10/hr. If I do, I will still lose my benefits, but I wont be able to afford to replace them myself. Not even close.”
Yup.
Exact numbers may vary by circumstance, but in general:
$15/hr income + allowed entitlements = $36/hr + no entitlements.
Few will be able to double their income in short order, so this gap is an insurmountable barrier for most.
Also explains why the “$15/hr min wage!” people don’t demand more.
Quite.
US “poverty line” is at 80th percentile of world income (PPP).
World median income is about $3/day.
If you’re making >10x more than half the people on the planet, you’re not “poor”.
Primary problem is there’s a profitable business in “advocating for the poor”. If poverty is resolved (largely the case in the US), those people are out of a job (both financially and morally) - so it’s in their interests to perpetuate & increase the scope of “poor”. They will NEVER concede to clear categorical definitions of poor, as doing so would eliminate their wealth, power, and righteous indignation.
“You can be a hard worker, yet still lack the ambition to improve your lot in life.”
That’s what confuses most progressives.
They don’t understand that life improvement doesn’t just _happen_ without behavioral improvements.
They don’t understand that one person’s “hard work” can in fact be worth 1000x more than another’s.
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