Why is it the poor don't take any responsibility for their own personal financial situations??

Question

...and instead, they blame the "rich" for their squalor???

ps--my "source" is Yahoo...they're all over this forum!

ps to World Peace--yeah, I've been there. Glad to be out of it too.

Answer 1

I don't blame the poor. They are being used as a political football by the left.

One problem is that our schools teach nothing about personal finance. In fact, our schools don't teach ANYTHING about the way money works.

This isn't just a problem for the poor - it affects middle class and rich as well.

Love Jack

Answer 2

Single moms are one of the groups that are more likely to remain in poverty for several years. The cost of child care being around $100 per child a week prohibits some from getting more than one job. Also, with small children it is difficult to further educational pursuits. Although the statistics may always be about the same, they are not likely to be the same individuals who are a part of these statistics year after year.

I have never heard a poor person blame the rich for their predicament. I assume you are talking about some of our elected officials who say this. Some business practices do lead to poverty for the underemployed. If a business really can't afford to pay a decent wage, perhaps they should not be in business at all. These jobs usually have a large turnover. In other words, statements comdemning the poor are unrealistic because there is constant movement for the majority of this group of people.

Answer 3

Brad you and musta should live in their shoes for a week and see if you feel the same way when the week is over. Plenty of jobs sure, but could you two live on $10 an hour. Try it. You would have to work 80-120 hours a week. So stop your yappin unless you've lived it, and if you have been poor and somehow have bettered yourself then tell your story and help some poor people achieve what you did.

Answer 4

Let us for a minute consider the production line worker in Michigan who worked all his career making automobiles, and was laid off when the plant closed so his work could be moved to China or Malaysia. When he started out his job was protected by the freely negotiated collective agreement and by protective legislation put in place by his elected representatives. Now let us watch as his job vanishes the minute his president and Congress remove the legal protections that formed the basis of that citizen's social contract. His income is gone, and he cannot find enough work to cover his mortgage and utilities, let alone groceries or medical costs.

Do you honestly think that this man was not betrayed by his own government, and by the corporation whose profits he worked to create? Is there no responsibility for the rich and powerful when they distort the agreements made in good faith with the actual working people?

Now consider the worker who has paid into a pension plan for thirty years, who discovers after retiring that his employer has taken advantage of specially written legislation to gut the pension fund, and use the proceeds to incease their own stock values. Instead of the golden years they earned they get poverty and want.

Some of the citizens who are living in poverty are there because of stupid personal decisions. Should those who went to work every day for thirty years and trusted their employers to keep their word be considered in that light? Should we consider a citizen who believes that his elected leaders will represent his interests to deserve betrayal?

I have not even brought the mentally unwell into this equation, nor have I brought up the child whose education system is so underfunded he does not learn to read well enough to find a good job. These people have also been dealt an unfair hand by God and the nation, so that we can have tax cuts for the influential.

Was it the working people or the chronically ill who convinced the government to remove their legal protections, to legislate to protect high medical costs, who closed the plants and moved all the jobs that supported the American economy to other countries? It was the powerful and wealthy!

Why is it the rich refuse to accept any responsibility for the situtation they have created?

Answer 5

Because they come from a culture of poverty. The public schools don't educate them about personal finance and thier parents didn't either. It's a cycle and it's one of the reasons we have this mortgage crisis, there are many who not educated and do not understand the legalise, they trust the people who say, just sign it, it's fine.

You take a lot of things for granted by making this kind of generalization. There are many honorable jobs that people work to pay the bills, but the minimum wage is not a livable wage. And a lot of times you have single parents who have to chose between their children and a job. Just not right.

And then you have those who just don't want to work and I believe they are in the minority.

Answer 6

I make less than $25000 per year and at my current level of savings, I will have more than $1 million in the bank when I retire. My point is that most of the poor aren't responsible enough to budget and save. I don't care what the rich are doing, because I'm working hard to become rich by the time I retire.

Answer 7

I was poor. I never blamed anyone for my situation. I looked for a pathway to improve my situation in life, and followed the path. It took a lot of years, but I'm doing very well now.

To do that I had to decide to

Delay gratification
Get the education and job skills necessary to work my profession
Work hard.

I could be broke again tomorrow, and follow the same path and be fine again.

Answer 8

I would suggest then that you get all 37 million of them together and explain it to them.

Oops, that rate just dropped. It's now 36.5 million.

Answer 9

They often do not.

There is only so much money. If the have's have more, most of us have less. Ever heard of Economics?

And with the way jobs are downsized and shipped overseas, there is only bso much self-blame to be had.

Answer 10

Before you judge those you perceive to be poor and non-responsible...

Why don't you take a moment to take a good look at a classified ad section in a newspaper such as the Los Angeles Times? In it, you'll see LOTS of jobs listed that require a gazillion skills but pay only between $7.50/hr minimum wage to $12 an hour. Then look at the rentals section, and you'll see studio/efficiency apartments that DO NOT include utilities, but rent for well over $1000 a month (even in the so-called 'bad' neighborhoods).

Who do you think sets those rates? NOT the poor, that's for sure...

Look, I don't blame the rich for the so-called "squalor" of the poor...I blame the rich for their GREED, lack of compassion, and forgetting the meaning of the words "Noblesse Oblige" i.e. With Nobility Comes Obligation, a time honored concept that seems to have been forgotten in this era of conspicuous consumption, judgmentalism and hardheartedness!

Any International Studies, Poli-Sci or Economics major can tell you that general worldwide poverty is DEFINITELY the fault of the rich! According to studies done by the United Nations, and other groups, it is the greedy 2% of adults who own and control nearly 50% of the world's wealth...and 90% of that wealth is in 1st world nations..but still out of reach by many adults and children who live in the "rich" nations!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6211250.stm

http://www.wider.unu.edu/research/2006-2007/2006-2007-1/wider-wdhw-launch-5-12-2006/wider-wdhw-press-release-5-12-2006.htm

Chew on this: FIVE of the top ten Forbes 400 are Wal-Mart heirs, most of their employees make under $17K USD a year, and their baggers in Mexico aren't paid at all...they are expected to work for TIPS ONLY!!! Sure, we all get everyday low prices...but at the expense of the poor!

http://www.motherjones.com/news/exhibit/2006/05/perks_of_privilege.html

A few other examples as to why the rich are to blame for US and worldwide poverty?

It's the RICH who get wealthy off the backs of the poor with sweatshops in the 3d world as well as in major urban areas in the US...especially Los Angeles!

It's the RICH who advertise job positions that pay minimum wage or slightly above, but price products at exorbitantly high rates, and then give themselves huge pay raises!

It's the RICH who take jobs and outsource them to India and other places, making it damn near impossible to find decent LIVING WAGE jobs...or forces people who put themselves through college to take the jobs that only require high school diplomas...jobs that have no benefits, limited upward mobility....and then don't give raises for several years, despite the increased costs of living!

It's the rich who buy rental properties, let them fall into disrepair basically becoming slumlords...and then getting the tax write off.

It's the RICH who get away with not paying their share of taxes...and the middle class who always gets screwed and gets pushed further and further towards poverty level.

It's the RICH who control Hollywood...and continue to make money/revenues off advertisements, movies and TV shows that glorify the lifestyles of the rich and famous...or have shows that give people unrealistic expectations and a lust for material goods...shows like Sex and The City, Beverly Hills 90210, Desperate Housewives and The OC.

Don't tell me that being poor is the poor's own fault! It's a little hard to pull oneself up by the bootstraps when there are people who are doing everything in their power to keep you down. .

Many of us who make under $30K a year are doing the very best we can for the circumstances we are sometimes stuck in through no fault of our own...and it doesn't help to have people looking their noses down on them the way you are!

Sure, there are some lazy people who are in the lower and working classes or those who make bad choices, but there are also people who do become poor because of circumstances such as illness, job layoffs, divorce, accidents that can and often does deplete any savings they may have accumulated over the years!

Don't be too smug, you just might find yourself in reduced circumstances someday through no fault of your own. In that situation, would you want people to look at you and say mean things about your socioeconomic status?

All those who are thumbs downing are just elitist snobs who just don't want to face the TRUTH!