Why Do The Poor Remain Poor?
Drake Bennett writes on why poor folks stay poor...in spite of massive programs to help:"In the community of people dedicated to analyzing poverty, one of the sharpest debates is over why some poor people act in ways that ensure their continued indigence. Compared with the middle class or the wealthy, the poor are disproportionately likely to drop out of school, to have children while in their teens, to abuse drugs, to commit crimes, to not save when extra money comes their way, to not work.
To an economist, this is irrational behavior. It might make sense for a wealthy person to quit his job, or to eschew education or develop a costly drug habit. But a poor person, having little money, would seem to have the strongest incentive to subscribe to the Puritan work ethic, since each dollar earned would be worth more to him than to someone higher on the income scale. Social conservatives have tended to argue that poor people lack the smarts or willpower to make the right choices. Social liberals have countered by blaming racial prejudice and the crippling conditions of the ghetto for denying the poor any choice in their fate. Neoconservatives have argued that antipoverty programs themselves are to blame for essentially bribing people to stay poor."
The entire story is
HERE!I feel the final line in the above quote is most accurate. The more people are given in the form of government programs, the more these people will become "addicted" to those programs...and the less they will be motivated to help themselves.
Duke
posted by Duke of DeLand @ 4/03/2008 07:49:00 AM
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