Why do people choose to be poor?

Question

If you disagree, explain why your life is not dictated by the choices you have made.

This applies to those without physical or mental handicaps. This is directed to those who choose to forgo the American dream and wallow is self pity and become a drag on society.

By the way, sob stories that show the choices people make leading to their place in life simply prove my point. Choice, Freedom, Liberty...we all have them.

Answer 1

Great question. I feel the same way!! People need to take blame for their situation and quit putting it off on other people. You don't have to have a lot of money to be happy in life, But some people think you do. I am satisfied with the basics in life, I don't need an expensive house, car, cloths or the newest gadgets on the Market. So My financial state is comfortable to me.... I wish everyone could have the sense enough to realize that you are only as good as you allow yourself to be.

Shanahan: Obviously you enjoy being the victim!! How can you even begin to think you aren't in control of your own life? No one is forcing you to do the things you do... It's a matter or Mind over Matter. Just set your goal and reach it. IT'S NOT HARD.

1848: Yeah my husband (he's 30) choose to get Cancer and have a Stroke before he turned 25 too, and his Medical bills were high. He came from a not so well off family himself with basic education.. He managed to pull himself out of those hardships and had enough determination to build himself right back up. He's doing great now, and works hard everyday. Excuses only make you weaker. Get a grip and admitt your failures.

Answer 2

There is a song by RUSH called "Free Will" in which they sing, "If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice."

I once read an analysis of why some people succeeded financially and others did not. Every person who succeeded financially had one very basic thing in common: they wrote down a list of goals and followed it. They made a plan.

A lot of people work year after year with absolutely no financial planning. Hence, their chance of succeeding financially is very low. They never write a budget, they never follow a strategy to put aside a certain amount each month, so how will they ever get ahead of the game?

I had an aunt who worked for Bell South (phone company), and back in those days women especially made very little money working in this field. However, she owned her own brownstone in Chicago. She lived modestly, saved every penny, rarely ate in a restaurant, and took such great care of her home that it looked like a time capsule: the furniture and appliances were dated, but they looked like they had just left the factory! She didn't treat her possessions like they were cheap and expendable.

In short, my aunt chose not to be poor.

Answer 3

People's choices lead them to be poor. I do not think you can actually choose to be poor. All of us have a finite amount of money based upon the value of what we do for a living.

What we do with that impacts our lives. Most people today do not manage their money and live above their means, not to mention that taxes are out of control.

If you spend all that you make, run up credit cards, and do not manage your money, you will be poor. I have found that most poor have bad attitudes and expect others to solve their problems. These people want government run this and that and will not take personal initiative.

I started my own business and have built it to a good level. I have losers all the time trying to sabotage me all the time. They are jealous and lazy. They tear others down because they cannot admit that they are failures. These people are destined to be broke

Answer 4

Okay did you know not all people are born with a silver spoon in their mouth and all of the oppurtunities in the world. I will tell you a story. A little girl is born into a family with a single mom and 3 brothers and sisters who lives in one room in a boarding house. Her mother can barely make ends meet and since she could not afford to go to college but she was not smart (because she never got the help she needed) enough to get a scholarship she is struggling to make ends meet working as a cashier in a store especially after her husband left her and the kids. The little girl tries hard in school but supplies in the school are low and the teachers have a hard time controling the rowdy kids and since her mom is uneducated she can not help her either. As the girl grows up she struggles more and more until she just is failing school. Then her mom loses her jo. Now the family is living on the streets. The girl goes to school until her senior year but she does not graduate because she never recieved the help she needed but now it is too late. She gets a job that pays minimum wage. She finally finds a boyfriend who she trusts and she ends up having twins with him. They are living in a run down apartment because they both lack education. Then one day he leaves her and now she is alone trying to pay for two kids on minimum wage and a little bit of welfare but she is dangerously close to the streets. Do you think she wants to live this way, do you think this was the life she chose? It is called the cycle of poverty. People are born into it and they do not choose it....and only the extremely lucky can escape. This is not a sob story it is real life...people do not choose to get themselves into poverty. Sure we have life liberty and the pursuit of happiness but the situations people are born into effect if they will reach these goals. I would like to see you try to be poor.

Answer 5

Probably family history in a lot of cases. Kids who watch dad sit on the couch and get drunk will probably emulate.

By the way I wholeheartedly agree with you that being poor in America is largely a matter of choice.

Answer 6

Poor...rather than be rich? The question itself is rather Black and White. The reality of life has a whole lot of grey.Choice implies control... and life's circumstances sometimes is not always favorable. Or is the question "Why do people choose to be miserable"?

Answer 7

To be truly poor in the US is extremely rare. There are "poor" people with cell phones, nice clothes, and flat screen TVs. To be truly poor though is certainly a result of the choices one makes.

Answer 8

My life is just great. I have no issues and offer no excuses. I am a retired highly-paid, highly-skilled tradesman, but...I'm also realistic enough to understand that most people are not that far removed from living in a homeless shelter or a cardboard box.

All it takes is something like a lay-off and a catastrophic illness with no insurance.

Don't be so smug.

The shelters are full of people who are there by no fault of their own.

Have a modicum of compassion, for God's sake...

Answer 9

It is dictated by choices and the environment you had to deal with. Not everybody starts at the same starting line.

Somebody like Bush Jr had opportunities somebody born in a poor third world country did not.

Answer 10

lltrix is exact reason SOCIALISM would destroy America. She thinks everyone on earth is owed a life, home, insurance, job, top pay and retirement from cradle to grave. She is so f'in clueless, I don't even know where to begin. She is also very annoying. Typical far left socialist liberal!