What keeps people in poverty in America?

Question

A high school grad with good money management skills, a good work ethic, and a good understanding of long term investing would be much more successful in life than a medical school grad with a drug habit and a flair for fast cars and fast women.
So, what keeps people in poverty in America?
Is it the consumerism mentality people are bombarded with on TV from childhood? Is it the failure of inner city schools to provided students with sound money management skills? Is it a character flaw in the individual? Is it because of a low IQ?
What do you see as the major reason people live in poverty in the land of opportunity?

Answer 1

Propaganda breeds bad decisions.

Propaganda Example:
"Democrats are the Political Party for poverty level minorities and civil rights."

"Republicans are rich bigots."

Education:

Democrats are and have been the party of the KKK, oppressing people of color and keeping them uneducated and in poverty while using them to vote Democrats into office through voter manipulation going back to Jim Crow laws.

Democrats replaced their "loyal slaves" with "loyal minorities" kept in poverty and propagandized to support the Democrats.

How many blacks would be Democrats if the truth that the Democratic Party supported slavery, opposed civil rights and was so tight with the KKK that Democratic candidates were selected at KKK meetings was widely known?

How many leftists/liberals would belong to the Democratic party if they were educated enough to know that the "commie blacklisting" House Un-American Activities Committee was organized by Democrats with the help of the KKK and that Senator McCarthy never belonged to that house committee?

Today people are stupid enough to believe that all the "Bad Democrats" joined the Republican party as part of some "vast right wing conspiracy".

Education by propaganda.

Making decisions based on bad information always results in bad decisions.

As a result of propaganda, poverty stricken minorities in the US generally end up making bad decisions.

These propaganda based poor decisions continue the cycle of poverty and breed a disrespect for education and the benefits derived from education.

PS: While personal choice is important those choices have to be made from a position of knowledge and understanding. If we feed people crap we must expect them to make poor decisions AND we should expect a few to succeed by pure accident further propagating the cycle.

Bad info always equals bad choices. When we give people bad information we must expect them to make bad choices and have bad lives.

Answer 2

It can be a mix of all the things you listed, unique to each individual. Or, none at all. I think we have to be careful in not placing responsibility with the individual in a lot of cases. Sure, there are some who just get a really lousy break in life. There are plenty who get the same lousy break, and find a way out too.

Of course, the point can and should be made that the poor in America are, on the global scale, not poor. If you've ever seen some of the REALLY poor of our world this would be painfully obvious. I've been to Haiti and seen the slums in Port-au-Prince. I live in Texas, and just this year drove across the border from El Paso and fed kids that live on the street. We went to the local garbage dump to feed them, because that's where they went every day to try and find food. I am not trying to down play your question at all. All I am saying is that poverty is a rather relative term in the USA.

Answer 3

One thing is lazyness. There are some people that no matter what the circumstance are just too lazy to get off their butts and get a job. Those people think the world owes them something.
Another is ignorance. Some people just do not know that there are ways to get a better job or more income: goin' back to school with student loans, etc. Some people donot understand how to invest or put their skills to work, nor do they know how to do this.
There is also things like drug addiction, the innability to control themselves when it comes to spending money, and just plain irresponsibility, no money management skills.
Some people just made too many bad decisions when it comes to what they need, want, and can afford.
I know for a fact that I.Q. has nothing to do with living in poverty. You can be the smartest person in the world and live in poverty. You can also be a complete idiot and be livin' the good life.
I believe that mostly people who live in poverty are there from PURE LAZINESS.

Answer 4

Laziness and welfare. Why would a lazy person try to make money when he could get it for free?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that all of the people drawing unemployment or welfare are lazy. Unfortunately, believe it or not, there are people out there abusing the system. When I was in high school I worked as a bag boy at the local Piggly Wiggly (grocery store in the south). The majority of people that came in there were using food stamps. I knew most of these people being from a small town, and I know for a fact that they could have had jobs if they wanted them, they were just too lazy. I can't blame them either, they were eating better than my family. Carts full of name brand junk food for free.

A person is a product of their environment and has free will to make their own choices no matter how old they are. Sure there are circumstances at home that kept children restricted from knowledge, but not many. If no one pushes the child and the child doesn't have it in them to succeed then they won't.

What people don't see is that there is always a way out. If you can't afford college then do well in school to get a scholarship. Didn't get one? Get student loans? Still no? Army? Air Force? Marines? Navy? Any Reserve? All of these will pay 100% of tuition.

Laziness and a lack of self inititive.

Answer 5

I definitely say money management,combined with lack of motivation,or long term goals,unwillingness to sacrifice(or not understanding the fact that,unless you are a millionaire,everything you DO spend on means there is something else you must do without)Lack of patience.These are what I think are the root causes.They are formidable obstacles,especially concentrating on the long term,avoiding the frustration that comes from working your azz off and never seeming to get anywhere.I firmly believe anyone can get out of poverty.I don't believe the govt or "the man"is holding anyone down.Not trying to toot my own horn,but my roots are abject poverty.I went 20 years in the military,barely "made it",saved a little,never thought I would get nowhere.The first few years of business after military,I thought I might lose what little I had gained during my stint.I kept going though,but I truly understand the impatience.So many times I thought it would be easier to just quit trying.But,with many "odds"stacked against me,I managed to retire quite comfortably,though not rich by any means.Impatience,spending on credit.These are the makers of poverty

Answer 6

None of the above.

Personal choices determine a lot about how you will end up in life.

If you could hypothetically take every dollar of wealth in the USA and divide it equally among all citizens, it would be less than a year before Bill Gates would be rich again, and "previous" welfare recipients would be asking for help again.

Not every person would end up where they began, but Most Would.

As evidence, I invite you to look at poor people who win million dollar lottery prizes. How many of these people burn through that money in about a year and are right back in a financial mess.

Often poor people are so because they already have poor money management skills.

AGAIN, I say often... not always.

Answer 7

There are too many possible reasons to list, the variables are endless. It is my belief that the main reasons are complacency, illiteracy, not seeking to specialize in a trade or seek higher education, and sometimes the situations people get into are just not conducive to having an easier time of it financially speaking. Learning to make better choices, having school guidance counselors who focus on the student body instead of particular students within it, better financial management and understanding of it, are some areas that need to be addressed, particularly with young women. We will never be without the poor, but we need to start at an earlier age instilling within our young people the importance of sound financial practices and preparation.

Answer 8

there is NO ONE REASON .. .and to try and give one is absurd......

In SOME cases .. you can NOT move upwards if you have no means ...

for those of you who are openly critical of the poor, saying that it is their laziness that places them in the situation they are in , consider yourself in the situation of SOME of the poor.... Born to uneducated blue collar workers , you are *encouraged* to leave school early to help bring in an income ALBEIT one of a minumum standard... you marry ... you have a child .. you still are on that low wage .. DOING BETTER ( as in obtaining a higher wage, according to the opinions i have read here .. where success seems to be measured by the zeros in your pay packet) is a near impossibility ...

SURE there are those that ARE lazy by choice .but they don't have the Luxuries that the likes of Paris Hilton have .. FAMILY money where they DON'T have to work..
In my mind .. there isa case of no compassion ...SOME people who are better off don't care that some low income earners CAN'T pay their medical bills ..


you look after all in your population with the basics .. and they will be more prepared and ABLE to do more ...

But I know people won't agree .. that's fine .. I just KNOW that there is More than just one simple answer.

Answer 9

It certainly isn't the IQ factor. You will find many homeless or very poor people with high degrees. It's more a factor of choices, some of which you outlined in your question. Some is bad luck and much of it is a social system that prolongs and makes it easy to be poor. Peoples needs are met, so what more do they want? Henry David Thoreau talked about the virtues of simplification, you can't get much simpler and apparently if you are a minority or if you have bred, it's easier yet.

Answer 10

a very conservative "liberal" acquaintance of mine, and a dam smart cookie, once put it this way: if tomorrow we leveled the playing field, redistributed all the wealth in this country equally, in six months all the money would be back in the hands of those who had it before, and today's poor would be poor once again. i think this is one of the wisest things this man ever said to me.

i chalk it up to decadence. it's like the crack head bemoaning his sorry state in between puffs on the pipe at $5-10 a load. an extreme case, for sure. but replace the crack with "big screen." how many big screens in the ghetto? what's the total monthly cost of that nice car out in the drive? this country is insane. there are malnourished children playing nintendo somewhere.