Why do people think that the POOR in America are LAZY?

Question

Consider this:
For those that are on welfare, it is like a full time job to get assistance. The lines go around the block and it can take up to four days just to fill a prescription or get a loaf of bread and there really isn't a cashable check that anyone gets.

For college students, most are taking out loans in hopes that they will get a good enough job to pay them back... but most companies are going over seas for cheaper labor.

For the elderly, how productive are they expected to be at 90?

For the baby-boomers, many of their jobs have been taken by outsourcing, technological innovation and immigrants. They never got to save for a proper retirement which puts their kids who want to go to college immediately in debt.

For the people who are in credit card debt - interest rates and late fees account for 2/3 of what they owe... and the companies still issue cards to them knowing that they are doomed.

Mark - and as a "liberal" I agree with you... but there people even more unfortunate than those who have crap jobs.

Answer 1

Year ago, my husband & I raised a blended family of 6 children & 2 adults. We both worked, at times I worked 2 jobs, the job he held did not enable him to take on extra work. We were poor! But, we were both in good health so, we managed to make it without Welfare. Times were different then, jobs were more plentiful, kids didn't expect as much as they do today, they took what they got without complaint, they understood that we didn't have the money for a lot of things they wanted. Today, people are expected to just charge it & the kids know it! We had one charge card, it was for back to school clothes & Christmas. It always took us a year to pay back what we had charged but, it was paid in time to charge again for the next year! We had one car, not ever a new one, & I took the bus to work. This much I will tell you, If I could go back & Welfare were available; I would take it & not feel the least bit bad about it! For those who need it, they should be able to get it, no one should have to live hand to mouth as we did, never knowing when someone was going to get sick & we would be wiped out! No way, let them have it, their kids deserve a better life than mine got! You will never hear me say that the poor in America are just lazy. All some of them need is a job that makes going to work worth while; a job that pays them enough to pay for the baby sitter, enough to keep heat in the house, food on the table & clothes on their backs. When those jobs are offered, the poor will take them, no problem!

Answer 2

Good Question !

As someone who has worked, and paid taxes since they were 12 years old, I was quite surprised when my health failed at age 53, and I found that there is No help for a middle-aged white guy who can no longer work.

If I hadn't had food stamps, energy assistance, and a decent landlord who found some work I could do, I would have been out on the street, with nowhere to store my meager possessions, and no options but the local missions.

Anyway, I'm sure there are a lot of able-bodied people out there who live well, on welfare. There's a huge under-class of people who grew up on welfare, and learned from their Moms, that having another baby is a great way to increase your income, and even get your own place !

Meanwhile, most poor folks would much rather be working at whatever job is available, then to have to go through the demeaning and shameful treatment you describe above.

I was lucky enough to qualify for a "school-to-work" program, where I got Pell Grants and student loans to help with the bills while I waited on my disability claim. That program, through the "unemployment office" was a saving grace for me.

I don't think I could live poor in this country, I would rather be dead, than be a victim of that tyrannical system. It's a trap, and the loss of self-respect involved is more than most people can tolerate.

Answer 3

Well, if it's a full-time job to get welfare help, why in the world can't these people get a full-time job? They'd be making their own money then, and not stealing it from the people that actually do an honest day's work.

I think many people equate "poor" with "on welfare". I know many poor people who are definitely not lazy. But I cannot concieve of a person chronically on welfare who is not lazy.

Answer 4

As a conservative member of the working poor, I can attest that I am not lazy, and neither are the 20 million people who do the menial tasks of cooking and serving those fat filled Big Macs, changing your sweat soaked bed linens, bagging your Evian water, picking the food out of the fields that you eat, taking care of your grandparents when you want to store them in a nursing home, authorize your credit card purchases at the convience store and clean up the public bathrooms you urinate in.

EDIT: Unless you've worked a "crap" job, you have no idea what it is like to support a family on unemployment insurance when that "crap" job fires you because they "want to go in a different direction".

Answer 5

Not all, but some...I sorry to say...some people feel that they are "entitled" to things w/out working for it..... So do you think the government can do a better job? Just look at your answer about welfare... for baby boomers it was "all" about them....It's called prioritizing......

for outsourcing....we as consumers are GUILTY for having companies go abroad b/c we aren't' willing to PAY the extra .50 cents to a $1 more for products made here....We shouldn't be blaming the government for that we should be blaming ourselves for it...... WE want everything CHEAP!!!!!!! I should know I'm in the manufacturing industry and I hear it all the time....The stuff made in the USA is just "too expensive" than stuff made in china..........we as a society are to blame.

Answer 6

Some people truly believe that we live in a meritocracy, and have never taken a basic sociology class.

There are some people that take advantage of welfare and are lazy, but most people on welfare do not fall into that category. Unfortunately, many people don't realize that.

Answer 7

Interestingly enough, you will find that the households with more money also generally have more people working - what a shock! You will also find that being poor is generally a transient state for most people. To really understand better, read Dr. Thomas Sowell, who was one poor himself.

Answer 8

I don't think that southerners are lazy. I am convinced that they support people who's policies keep their states dirt poor.

Most southerners I have met are willing to do back breaking work. Yet the policies of their state governments and the corporate masters that own their states do not create growth or opportunity for them.

Answer 9

No poor and lazy are two separate concepts, poor is sometime caused by economic conditions and lazy usually is equated with people who have never worked, 3rd and fourth generation welfare recipients would fit nicely.

Answer 10

You have to consider those that say it. They claim that they work,yet think it is OK to slack off while at work posting on yahoo. They have no idea welfare is no picnic or how it even works,maybe everyone should be required to live a year in the shoes of those on welfare.