Do you feel that in the US people practically choose to be poor?

Question

Meaning that anyone can be well off if they have the will to work.

Answer 1

Some do, yes. Some people don't seek honest employment. They would rather ''hustle'' on the streets and then (because they're not ''showing'' an income) take advantage of taxpayer's money in the form of public assistance. Instead of spending these ill gotten money to better their lives and that of their family's, they spend it on drugs and alcohol. I personally have witnessed this exact scenario dozens of times and I still am.

Answer 2

I do not feel that any one chooses to be poor everyone always talks about you can do anything or be anything you want in the USA the fact is that may have been true in the past twenty years but in today's world not so easy with all the companies going overseas making it cheap and then being able to bring it back into the country and still make money soon we shall have what is termed educated poor in America they will have the education but will not be able to find work here will have to go overseas where the jobs of the companies in America are

Answer 3

No. Why would anyone choose to be at a disadvantage? Unless they're in a religious sect of some variety that stresses the moral importance of poverty.

I believe that there're many people who don't know anything about personal finance, or the tools available to get ahead. Or they can't find a way out due to mental blocks, bad habits, and other things they don't know how to get around. But that's an entirely different thing than making a conscious decision to be left behind. It's a matter of tools available and one's enviornment (the surrounding people tending to be as critical as one's geography).

Further, what would you say of disabled persons, or those with severe mobile impairment? Yours is a completely inadequate assessment, in such situations.

And that's the criteria we must use to judge such statements -- the degree to which they apply in real life.

Answer 4

No I don't think people make a decision to be poor but there are people who because of a physical or mental handicap can not hold down a high paying job. There are those that choose not to work any more than they have to and then blame the rich people for all of their problems.

Answer 5

Choose to be poor? No.

But there are people who make choices that cause them to become poor and/or stay poor.

Choices like: dropping out of school, getting pregnant and having children outside of wedlock while still in school, doing drugs/alcohol, committing crime, etc.

The janitor in my building is an old guy who should be retired, but he told me about when as a young man he walked away from good-paying steady jobs for one bad reason or the other, thinking he could always find a good job. That's why he's cleaning toilets at 65 years old - bad choices.

Answer 6

Actually, yes I do. Not in the sense that they say, gee - I think I'll be impoverished when I grow up, but in the sense that they fail to take advantage of the opportunities given to them.

We provide a free education in this country. If you *choose* not to take advantage of that, you will most likely be poor.

Look at the millions of people who come here, not even speaking the language when they arrive, yet go on to build successful lives and even businesses for themselves. Certainly these LEGAL immigrants don't have any more advantages than natural-born citizens do - so why are so many of them successful, and so many Americans aren't?

I *do* think that luck plays a part, to a degree, but you have to WORK to make it. Sadly, we've become a country where too many people have a sense of entitlement. No one owes you **** - expect maybe a swift kick in the butt.

Answer 7

No body picks to be poor, Apparently your not in the states, where you turn over 95% of your pay check to taxes.
What Taxes?
State tax
Federal tax
Social Securtiy tax
Property tax
gas tax
road tax
wheel tax,
taxes on ALL of your purchases Except for Food.
Then you buy licenses plates,
Insurance for your car, home, if your lucky, medical.
People do not have a paycheck anymore, so they can put something back.
If you live here and you DON'T have to pay taxes, your not an American.

Answer 8

There are no people anywhere who choose to be poor. But there are many rich people who choose to make other people poor by not paying livable wages, and bringing in aliens who will accept lower wages. Read Jack London's book called "The Abyss". We are headed there rapidly.

HDEAN45: Are there so many CEO jobs that all of the poor could have one?

Answer 9

i believe people get to where they are, in America anyway, by making a series of choices. When i was 33 and driving a taxicab living in a crappy one bedroom apartment with second hand furniture, it was a real wake up call when I would pick up one of the "geeks" I went to high school with at the airport and take them to their half million dollar homes in the suburbs. It started dawning on me that maybe it was my fault. They grew up in the same neighborhood, went to the same school, they got A's, I got C's. They didn't drink and smoke pot. I did. They did their homework and turned it in. I blew off the homework and took the zero because I knew I could ace the final tests and squeak through with C's and D's. I made my choices, they made theirs. I did finally put the pot away and got a real job. Now I own a house too. Not as nice as theirs, but it's mine!

Answer 10

this is a DUMB question, no one wants to be poor. Just because some people don't have time or money to get a college education does not mean that they CHOOSE to be poor. With the prices of everything these days you have to have a great job to no be poor, and unfortunately those job are not just lying around