Why Such Disdain for the Poor?

"Rich people are mostly rich because they inherited money." Ok, this conversation is over. That was over the top stupid.

 

You mean rich people like say Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi too?

 

I grew up poor. I'm no longer poor because despite my brown skin tone I worked and saved and invested and then managed to hold onto a fair amount of that even after Barack Obama began doing his very best to make certain that the economy never, ever recovers. Do you know who's primarily howling about the poor people in this nation -- when they bother to remember them, that is? -- people who have absolutely no idea what living poor really is like. All they know is what they see on television or the internet and what their equally isolated from reality -- usually BORN to wealth -- politicians tell them to think about the issue . . . and we are talking about the Birkenstock-wearing, tree hugging, clove smoking, vegetarian trust fund legacy . . . liberal.

 

I grew up poor, too. Attended 12 different elementary schools because for yrs, we moved everytime the rent was due. Raised by a single mom in the days before there was any help for single moms. I remember staying by myself when she got a job working nites... and I was only 6.
Wouldn't consider myself poor anymore but thats because Ive worked full time since I was 17, bought a house, saved a lil nestegg.

One thing libs dont understand about being poor... poor doesnt necessarily mean unhappy. Unloved means unhappy.

If necessary, I can feed a family of 6 with five dollars. One of many life lessons being raised poor teaches a person.

Bottom line, poor people dont need saving. They need jobs.

 

It's true that the poorest areas have the worst schools, but the bad schools don't cause the poverty. It's the other way around.

In big cities, there's a deep, if unspoken, prejudice on the part of politicians (usually Democrats), "community leaders," teachers, and school administrators. They don't think much of the people in poor communities, so they bring the worst to their jobs. Their low expectations lead to low effort. The worst teachers make half-hearted efforts to teach children they really think are unteachable. Teachers' unions are happy to secure these low-work jobs for their members. This is the land of "social promotion." Nobody works hard; nobody expects much, so the children are excused from learning. The poverty causes the bad education, not vice versa.

In the suburbs and country, poor communities simply don't have much money to spend on education. When teachers can get much higher pay by going a few miles down the road, the best teachers do so. Only the least competitive stay behind to miseducate the poor.

 

I came from a well off family. My parents never spoiled me, that's how I was raised. Anything I wanted, I had to save up for. My father came from very humble beginnings and instilled those values on me. They did offer to pay for college, but I turned them down because I wanted the satisfaction of doing it on my own. Everything I own now, nice car, house, fancy electronics, etc. was earned by me! Keep in mind, both of my parents are still alive, so no I have not inherited anything. I own 2 companies, both of which a started from scratch, with my own capital and my own hard work. I taught myself computer programming on the side while working full time and going to college! If you have the drive, you will NOT be impoverished.

 

What do they call it now - something like "calorie challenged"? The gov didn't keep starvation statistics before WWII. Too embarrassing, I think. I remember as a parochial school kid we had food and clothing collections for the starving kids in Appalachia. That was well after WWII.

 

Both my parents grew up in Appalachia. They were pretty dirt poor, but they never went hungry. Hunting, fishing, raising your own gardens and livestock, collecting wild edibles. They were very fond of those experiences (and liked the food better). Me, I would rather not milk a cow a couple times a day, but if I had to, I could I suppose.

 

The starvation that occurred in the Appalachian mountains up until the 1980's was the last incidence of genuine hunger in this country. But somehow we've resurrected this "crisis" by tying the foodstamp and school lunch roles to starvation. In simplistic terms, anyone accepting food aid from government is "starving". You and I know different because we see people who aren't even remotely hungry loading up their shopping carts at Walmart Supercenters. They have cable TV, cell phones with "everything" plans, and a lot of the luxuries of life because their food bill is being paid by others. I hardly consider them starving, and moreover, it's an insult to those who made their way through college on Top Ramen. I don't believe it's even possible to starve in this country unless it's by choice.

 

Well, that's what I was saying. Poverty now is nothing like pre-WWII poverty. Those who believe the welfare state has not been a big help to a lot of people is just not understanding the facts on the ground, now or in 1930.

 

Expecting people to sustain themselves, make their own way, and ultimately lay in the bed they made for themselves is not disdain.

 

Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme