Just an opinion question: Do you think that, in the majority of cases, being poor is a choice (In America)?

Question

Personally I think that it is, at least in America.

Answer 1

Yes it is, because too many americans these days are lazy.

Answer 2

For many being poor is the result of bad choices, often made when young, such as dropping out of school, doing drugs and getting in trouble with the law, or having a baby. However if your family is well off you get second and third chances which are not available to people who come from poor families. So if you mean by choice, deciding today they would rather be poor than work, I would disagree, But if you mean that if they had made better choices from an early age, they would not be poor, I would agree.

Answer 3

I'll answer your question with a question...Imagine you are the son of a Philippino woman, and your father was a black American soldier.
You didn't ask to be born, but every body hates you as a mixed breed. Your mother is so poor that you live under a piece of tin that others envy you for....You are beaten every day for your colour, and your mother can't pay for food, and education isn't even a question; you have to beg for food....

Should the American sodier pay for the childs food and education and have concern for the child he has abandoned or will the child magically become rich because, "anyone who tries will make it."

If you don't try, then you are doomed to failure. In some cases when you do try, failure is still the out-come. Plato said on the fortune of nations, that luck is the most important of blessings.

I take it you come from a middle-class family. You have a home computer on the net. Your schooling is possibly above average. Your parents are not likely to be crack-heads. You are not beaten or abused....You have no exscuse not to 'make it' in the world.
Now consider a child who has no computer, a father that beats you due to his alcohol abuse; and all the worse of possible nightmares you have seen in the movies....add constant hunger because you have never had a good meal in your life...and now you know why being poor is not exactly a choice, but an enviromental issue. (ie, enviroment of growing-up, not the eccological.)

If anyone tells you that the poor want to be poor, you are talking to fool who has never been poor. I just returned from the Philippines, and that black Philippino child is very, very real. His mother is hated in her village, and the child is beaten every day...but his father doesn't care, he's back in America trying to be rich.

When money is more important than heart(soul,) and is more impotant than health....then you have become a sick individual. Don't focus on dollars as a measurement of success; you will breed souless children who will 'pull the plug' on you for their inheritance, lol.

Frankly, American servicemen who abandon their babies all over the world are not the sort of men I have learnt to admire. Perhaps you can ask your government why they allow their soldiers off-spring suffer as they do; or doesn't the American government care about who they leave behind?
Guy.

Answer 4

That is a great question but the terms 'poor' and 'choice' are extremely imprecise.

In America, more than 50% of people have below-average incomes because a small number of people earn much more than the rest (this is not true in all countries http://gapminder.org/projectsView-2.htm ). Consequently most Americans perceive that they don't earn enough, so they feel relatively 'poor', even though their lifestyles may be richer than those of most people in the world.

Then too, a lot of people are unaware of options, or don't have access to them (e.g., education), or are constitutionally incapable of pursuing them (Laziness? Depression, an extremely common illness, numbers among its symptoms 'lack of motivation').

We have a better option than blaming the unfortunate: helping them. It is also much more satisfying and ethical!

Answer 5

Being poor or in poverty means not having the basic shelter, food, and clothing. Along with not living in a safe place. Some people are trying their very hardest. Many poor and homeless people you see were probably making upper middle class incomes at some point. But life can hit you hard when you least expect it and it could take years to regroup. At the same time, there are people in the projects who are proud of everything that comes with that culture and they ain't tryin to leave.

Answer 6

No, I don't think being poor is a choice. I think it's a matter of not finding the right opportunities or knowing where to look or that there are even other options.
I think that a lot of the problem is ignorance. People don't know how to get out of poverty or stop relying on the government for help. Even if they are told they can learn these things, the fear and negativity might hold them back.

Answer 7

I am not sure it is by choice exactly. Sometimes it is unavoidable for any number of reasons, but the biggest isn't the lack of $.

Actually, the money is out there, but our educational system is so poorly run, that there are people who graduate from high school, who don't have a clue how to handle money.

And in today's society, its tough enough starting out having a handle on your finances,knowing how to handle money.

The poor slob who gets out of high school and can't even balance a checkbook or plan a budget or rent an apartment is beaten before he even gets started.

I wish that they would make it a requirement that every student that leaves high school knows these basic rules for living that our society is so desperately lacking .

Answer 8

You choose to work, but not what pay you'll get. If you're doing the best job you can find (as far as salary) and are poor than it's not really a choice. If you're too lazy to work (not hurt, just lazy) then it is a choice. Some people do the best work they can find and are qualified for, but they're still relatively "poor", so in that sense it isn't a choice. They have no other options.

Answer 9

Absolutely. Everyone has a chance to elevate themselves from being poor and it is an opportunity in the form of education that this happens. However, most people in school today choose to be "cool" and shun education. That is a choice. They chose cool over education. They end up poor. And griping about it the rest of their lives. No one's choice but theirs. It is like a popular thing to do to make fun of the kid in the classroom that is the brain. Usually that person is socially ostracized and even picked on. I know that here in the midwest, that is the usual way it always happens.

Answer 10

In the majority of cases...I don't know the statistics so I can't say. But in a lot, yes. NO matter what your situation, countless people have shown that hard work pays off and can lead to success, even from a homeless bum. Its not always the case, sometimes life throws a nasty curve ball, but in a lot of cases, people decided to be lazy and let the government pay them.

Answer 11

For other country national to go and live is so much a lengthy procedure, and the people so hightech in many fields is lazy to be natural, and they may suffer fo that.