Why do liberal minded people often feel poor people do nothing wrong to become or stay poor?

Question

They feel it has absolutly nothing to do with bad choices and money mismanagement?
It's how you spend your money. Many people I know who are poor have jobs.
But people don't HAVE to smoke, drink, gamble, use illegal drugs, waste money on frivilous things...
I find it disturbing with some of you that even when it is pointed out they smoke in the house with children, sometimes asthmatic, you don't care, you still think these people should not be "judged". What extremes do poor people have to reach to make it permissible to then "judge" them. Statistically, they have more problems with child abuse too, but don't judge, right?
Quite disturbing. I'm wondering how many of you are the classic "ivory tower" liberal or just young and naive.

Answer 1

You are not totally wrong, but almost. But you have obviously never experienced poverty.
Yes, some people make bad choices. But one bad choice can lead a person who is balancing at the edge of poverty to bancrupcy, while the relatively same (or worse) bad choice would become a "good tax deduction" for a wealthy person.
No one has to drink, smoke or gamble. Some people in every walk of life do these unhealthy things. Why blame the poor more than the rich?
The poor have more problem with child abuse? Maybe, but that is not sure. It is so much easier to convict someone of child abuse (or any other crime for that matter) if he/she is defended only by an overworked, underpayed, unskilled public defender than if he/she has the money to hire the best attorney (look at O.J. Simpson).
Every poor person is not blameless. But then again, many rich people deserves to be judge and blamed, but they are "out of reach." It is so much easier to blame the weak and disanfranchised for their pain!!! And so much easier to look at someone wealthy as someone worthy!!!
I am not liberal, I am no longer young. I am lucky enough to be from the upper middle class and to live in a beautiful, comfortable, golf community. But I was trained as a social worker, and worked with poor people, disabled people, people with AIDS, and people with mental illness. I have worked with people who self-medicated with alcohol because it was too hard for them and their family to recognize the need for psychotropic medication.

In all these people, young, and old, healthy and sick, there isn't one that DECIDED to be poor. Not one that wouldn't exchange their life, their "sins" for the life of the middle or upper middle class.
I also know that in the privileged environment I now live in, there isn't a person who would exchange their comfortable upper middle class life for the "easy" life of the smoking, drinking, gambling, drug users, money wasting "poor," although many of these "elite" are smoking, drinking, gambling and may even have "inhaled" at some point in their life (still may!).
You say yourself that many of these are "working poor." Have you ever tried to live and raise a family on minimum wage? Have you never been short with your child when you came home after an especially stressful day at work?
Don't judge until you have walked a mile in someone else's shoes, or at least walked beside them.
There is a great book someplace. I don't remember the author, but the title is: "God Don't Like Ugly."
So remember those words if you go to Church on Christmas.

Answer 2

Because not all of them do. Yes there are some that are in their situation for things they have done, but there are some taht are not. Some people are victims of their situation, and to say that they all put themselves in their position is a slap in the face to those people who are trying to change their quality of life. There are tons of poor people in the world and not all of them do drugs, smoke, gamble, or waste money on frivilous things.
You can judge them all you want, no one can stop you from thinking. But when you generalize a group of people then expect to be judged in return as a jerk.
What do you have to say about the rich people who smoke, drink , gamble, use illegal drugs and waste money on frivilous things ? Is it alright for them to do this because their parents or grandparents worked hard? Aren't they socially responsible to help those who have hit hard times?

Answer 3

So rich people do not gamble, smoke, drink or take illegal drugs, oh sorry, of course, they are allowed to because they can afford it.

Oh yes, of course, abuse only happens to poor people as well. Well at least it is more noticeable with poor people, they don't have a suit or a tie, a public school education or good career giving them the model citizen look to hide behind whilst committing sins that cannot be seen through the eyes of people who are so easily fooled by status.

I feel it is you who are naive in 'your' Ivory tower.

Answer 4

You sure are interested in JUDGING aren't you? When CAN I JUDGE "Them?" When is it permissible to judge them? You must need something to "feel" better than other people and I guess this is how you get it, by judging 'others.'

Sad for you.

Maybe they haven't been taught proper methods to manage money? And yes, there are alot of people that mismanage money, this makes them stupid and weak and yes, POOR. While I don't pity these people, I do pity their offspring.

Sounds to me like your more interested in picking a political fight than helping anyone doesn't it? With words like "ivory tower," etc., all your trying to do is stir sh*t and not get anything done.

When you come up with a solution, PRESENT IT. OTHERWISE SHUT THE H*LL UP because all you want is a hate filled tirade.

Answer 5

You oversimplify things. While some poor people are lazy, most aren't. Some are mentally ill, others are not very intelligent. Most are born poor, live around more poor people and are raised in a culture of poverty. They live their whole life in inner city housing, grew up in a terrible school system and are surrounded by crime and drugs. They survive the best they can. Obviously throwing welfare money at the problem doesn't work. I believe in supporting education programs that actually leads to good paying jobs. Also the housing projects should be destroyed in favor of quality single family housing that allows pride in ownership and dignity in life.

Answer 6

There are bad poor people and bad rich people. Capitalism is certainly no judge of morals, and often the slimiest competitor wins all the candy. I think you should ask yourself why you feel the need to beat up on poor people. Sure some of them do stupid and ignorant things, but not everyone is poor because they are stupid and ignorant. Truth is the system is not entirely fair, and we don't get to opt out of it. Layoffs, illnesses, natural disasters...these can wipe a middle-class person out in the wink of an eye. I don't believe in unlimited welfare, but a safety net is essential if we are to keep capitalism and ever claim to be moral.

Answer 7

"It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps." Martin Luther King, Jr.

I think that, if you use your imagination somewhat, that ought to speak to your question. The real "ivory tower" of naivety is the assumption that there's a magical and equally distributed fund of opportunity available to everyone, and that some foolishly squander it, while others wisely take advantage of it. It's beyond question that some people find themselves in bad situations due to poor decisions, but there are many people who try their best and are still unable to find a way out.

Answer 8

Do not make "judgements" about liberals. I work with several conservatives who do the exact same thing as what you are talking about. They say it is because "its the Christian thing to do." I see them give money to poor people they know do drugs. One of them has a son that is an addict with two children. He spends his time and money keeping his son out of jail and giving the child food and shelter. He hates it when people tell him that his son is no good. Its horrible, but it is not only the liberal thing to do.
People don't realize that these people pray on other generousity and sympathies to get them through life, but have no intentions of doing anything about it themselves. They are con artists who know how to get what they want and by telling what they are is not being mean or cruel, it is actually forcing them to see what they really are and requiring them to change.

Answer 9

The vast majority of people on low incomes do their very best to budget properly and make sure their kids are ok.

It's only a small minority who behave in the way you describe.

I think it's really nasty to assume that everybody who is on a low wage is some kind of loser.

And lots of professional middle-class people smoke, drink, gamble and do drugs. Are you saying it's ok for them because they can afford it?

Answer 10

turn of the century thinkers wrestled with similar questions. The most important thinker that I think you should read is Thorstein Veblen. In The Theory of the Leisure Class he writes of how exactly the elite class maintains the status quo of the economy. Instead of giving you a rendition of his arguments I simply ask that you read it.