People are poor because the make bad decisions. They choose to be poor. Agree?

Question

In this country, the only people that are poor are the ones that choose to be poor. I am not saying that someone wakes up in the morning and wants to be poor. I am saying that people make decisions in their lives that lead them down that road. Study for school or party? Work or party? Do drugs or find a job? I do not believe that today in this country, there is not an excuse for anyone to be poor. Please do not bore me with the disabled and handicapped, they should be taken care of by their families.

The United States.

Actually, I have spent much time with the poor and homeless. I occasionally take the golden spoon out of my *** and volunteer. I hear the same story, about drug use or fooling around instead of going to school.

I'm sorry, I forgot. It is the government's responsibility to fix everything and teach you how to make good decisions.

I never said choices would be easy and I never said that intelligence has anything to do with wealth. Extremely intelligent people that are lazy are useless just as unintelligent people that work hard are useful.

Also, I find it funny that you wrongly corrected my english.

Answer 1

It's both a choice and a non-choice.

A large part of the choice side is like you define: do drugs or get a job.

But in the case where a person is born into poverty, the road to wealth is long and hard even if they work and study long hours.

Take myself for example, I've worked and studied for a long time to break out of a family grounded in poverty. However at age 25 I will still won't be able to afford my own home or car for another 5 to 10yrs. While I earn enough to live well, for me to afford these extra things I would have to slash my cost of living and go back to living poorly. The notion that I could work and study hard enough to become a popular supernerd earning lots of money is founded in fairy tale idealism. In reality that rags to riches story only happens to one in a million.

I look at friends who have been fortunate enough to live at home until they were 24 and had their parents buy them a car or house, or married someone rich, or whatever. I don't feel jealousy, because I am happy with the choices I made to get where I am. However I am aware that I have a slower start to life because of poverty. The age at which I will be able to have children will be later because of how long it will take to reach that level of economic security. If I were to have children now at age 25, I would be putting those children back into the poverty cycle. Instead I will have to wait until I'm about 30 or 35 before I can ensure that poverty is overcome.

So really, the choices we make do affect our financial situation. But consistently good choices can't defeat poverty overnight. It takes time to beat that poverty cycle, and so in answer to your question I propose that it is not just choices - it's also patience and recognition of ones true place in life.

After all, it's not my choice that petrol prices are so high. Nor is it my choice that cheap houses cost $250k where I live. But it is my choice to keep working and wait until I can afford those things until I try to buy them. It just takes time.

Answer 2

I wont lump all poor into any particular category. I do personally know some poor people or financially challenged that have made poor choices. Choices included large screen TV's, bar bill four times a week, three kids from 3 different dads, not married to any of them, buying groceries from a gas station mini-mart instead of a discount grocery store, computers with alot of games, cable TV vs. antenna , cellphones, expensive vehicle, etc.. These are things I had to make choice on. My wife and I took the less expensive choices. Choosing how many children to have is another choice. I wasn't born with a silver or gold spoon in my mouth. I worked a full and part time job for most of my career. My wife worked and we both shared watching the kids. Didn't spend any more than 25% of our monthly income for housing etc.

I think these choices can make a big difference. We're still not "rich" as many people would describe it. We are happy and found that most of the stuff we thought we were denying ourselves, we didn't really need. I also know some homeless that would not have it any other way. They get $500.00 a month from the county, and sleep free at missions etc. They have told me I was stupid for working when they described all the benefits they had. I am compassionate and am plenty generous but believe choices can make a difference.

Answer 3

I am financially challenged, lol. I have to say that once you are in a situation living from paycheck to paycheck, it is difficult to get ahead. In order to make anything spectacular happen, something has to change. Maybe I should take a chance and try something new, but in doing that, what if it doesn't work and I miss my very small paycheck that provides food for my family? I graduated high school with honors. I kept making excuses why I had to wait to go back to college. Now, I have two children and a spouse. Yes, I have made bad decisions. I deserve my position in society. However, I know so many less fortunate individuals who really haven't had the same opportunities as I did. I may have screwed up my chances so far, making you correct in my case. However, I totally disagree that all of the poor are poor because they make bad decisions. You speak about the poor as if you can categorize them all into one little part of society. There are different environments and upbringings, but honestly, I doubt that you care...

Answer 4

i wager your answer lies on your definition of "undesirable". in my opinion i love my State of TExas and inspite of the actual shown actuality that we've a "depressed economic device" I paid $70,000 for my residing house the following and my brother in California paid $three hundred,000 for a smaller residing house there. The economies being below the northeastern and coastal states are as a rule a manufactured from unionization which has pushed up wages to unsustainable degrees causing the price of each and everything to pass as a lot as help those larger wages which motives more beneficial inflation which motives the choose for more beneficial pay which motives the prefer to toughen expenditures ... see the vicious cycle. If we were all paid a honest salary and products were depending an a particular margin the economies will be more beneficial standardized yet then you loose the skill to understand tutorial, experiential and ability adjustments between the individuals. The south is doing more beneficial ideal at present because various organizations hit upon there via "ideal to artwork and employ at will" status of those states. As for the worst coaching, our public coaching device is a failure nationwide and the worst of the worst become Washington DC ... how ironic is that? Our public coaching device, as a rule and widely unionized have become so tremendous that the rival various municipal and county governments and they have created such protections that you may not fireplace a instructor for being incompetent. Our public coaching device needs a intense overhaul yet with unions and collective bargaining agreements i do not see that occurring contained in the close to destiny. mother and father everywhere prefer to get more beneficial in contact with their youngster's coaching and push for systemic reform.

Answer 5

There's a cycle of poverty in this country due to the lack of education and job training provided by the govt. Poor kids need more help than rich kids. The rich have the means (daddy's checkbook) to be successful whereas the poor often times turn to crime when they have no other choices. The fact that the richest country in the world has so many ghettos is a disgrace. You can blame them for making poor choices, but if their parents were poor, uneducated and used drugs then it's difficult for them to succeed without extra help.

Answer 6

I'd like to know why it's automatically assumed that poor people do drugs? There are some "economically challenged" people out there who are just victims of circumstance. Not everybody has mommy and/or daddy to take care of them, pay their way into school, buy them a car, get them a job via connections, etc. And as far as disabled/handicapped people go, not all of them can be "taken care of by their families"; a remark that leads me to believe that you are well taken care of by your family and therefore assume that everybody has that option.

Answer 7

No I dont agree. Alot of handicap people don't have families to take care of them. I know alot of people also that had good paying jobs and lost them because the companies cut back on workers, so they lost everything . Not everyone in America is fortunate enough to had went to college. Do I think a large portion of todays generation make bad decisions? Yes I do. Too many bad influences out there, and the majority of them thinks somebody is going to come along to take care of them.

Answer 8

You do realize there are many many many so called 'working poor.' People who have several jobs, work 12~20 hrs a day, but still very poor. You haven't heard of the term 'working poor'?

It's not that straight forward. Recent study also showed intelligence almost had nothing to do with wealth. Showing basically no correlation between wealth and IQ tests.

But it's so amusing to see people who think they got everything figured out about everything.

Answer 9

most of the time yes unless you are injured and cant work i can tell on here for the most part who is a liberal they don't sound responsible do they like the government should give them a job or take care of them the Democrats give the poor people a ghetto to live in i am not rich i never went to collage because i hate going to school but I'm doing ok i save my money i don't have kids because i don't like kids and i want more money for me so i can have the things i have i deliver pizza for a living its a easy job anybody can do it and the pay is ok i make around 800-900 a week and i only work 40-45 hours a week and i would like to work allot more hours you don't need collage to make money but it helps i just never figured out what i would like to be i have volunteered my time i was a volunteer firefighter for 4 or 5 years i did it to help people and my community and it was fun and exciting i think people need to grow up and take care of themselves

Answer 10

Not always but that can be a factor. Some people where denied an education by their parents or situations. We cannot judge everyone from the few. Some people are poor because they were never taught the habits that they need to improve their lives. Some are poor because accidents happen. Some are poor because others keep them poor. We can't be to general.