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I am in my 30s, a traveled American for sure. Going away to Europe and seeing things feels like a different world. I don’t care about European cities as much as I do about American cities because I am a native.
I have been to major cities ever since I was growing up. As a passenger who always sat in the back seat, I always loved taking in the view, as I am originally from the North East NYC region. I thought Washington D.C. was going to be neat and tidy. I learned there are poor areas of D.C., just as probably every major city. I was surprised by this when I was younger.
As I grew up, I learned I shouldn’t be surprised by what I saw. But I had this deep inside feeling that I wanted to see America’s major cities improved financially.
Beverly Hills California is about the rich and famous. If you go the poor areas of Los Angeles, there is a different world. It still amazes me wealth and poverty are happening simultaneously and close to each other.
So why can’t more money be given to provide resources to those in need? Why can’t where the money being made be made more to give away for poor people? When you have poverty, you will often times have criminal behavior, as a way to find money, which can lead to violence. Doesn’t the government realize this cycle?
Private prisons love poor people. Look up CCA and all their corrupt activities regarding lobbying for tougher laws. Also many many private companies benefit from prison slave labor. I worked with a guy in prison once in Louisiana.
1) A disparity will always exist because wealthy and impoverished are relative terms. Life today for the poorest Americans is startlingly better in many ways than even the richest Americans after the Revolution.
2) Using money to express the difference is between the haves and the have-nots is a bit of a trap, because it doesn't cover everything in its most valuable aspect. An academic can have less pay than an entry-level programmer at a big tech company, but still have more influential power. Money can be primarily used to guess the value of exchangeable resources, but it fares quite poorly with regards to the unexchangeable, like the time a parent spends with a child.
3) The experience of having been dirt poor or hitting rock bottom isn't necessarily worthless. It can be one of the most potent motivation factors for a person. For others, it can bring better appreciation for the everyday things. However, for many, it's a backbreaking burden. Having an easier out can greatly help out the broken, but it can also completely stifle those who'd otherwise be motivated. The thing is, it's really hard to tell who's who, especially for something as removed as the government. That said, there's still a lot of real issues with America's poverty.
4) Aid to get out of rough spots needs to be well-timed with regards to a person's mindset. You can't expect people to spend money the way you intended it to be.
5) There's more incentive for the government to keep the cycle going or even expand the problem than to stop. The ones who stand the most to lose are actually the professional advocates, since if there's no problem, then there's no talking point. The best advocates are the ones whose benefit is contingent in the long-term that issue gets resolved.
So why can’t more money be given to provide resources to those in need?
Why can’t where the money being made be made more to give away for poor people?
The money available just doesn't go as far when we ÷ by 10,000 ...rather than 1,000.
(hint: the number of people is the issue)
Quote:
When you have poverty, you will often times have criminal behavior,
Doesn’t the government realize this cycle?
Yeah they realize....
You wanna put a bunch of Cops and Prosecutors and Judges and Jail Guards out of work?
Sad as it is.. it wouldnt work..it would cause an economic meltdown..Isnt it better to five ways to educate people as Carnegie tried to do with his libraries...
Isnt it better to five ways to educate people as Carnegie tried to do with his libraries...
Yes it is. And to motivate all young women to DELAY having their first child...
as the daughters of more stable homes will generally do as a matter of course.
(the 'course' being the education, matriculation and aspiration they have available)
Poverty is an "industry", and far too many are making money off of it for it to ever end. It is one of our biggest industries along with the "prison industry".
The terms poverty industry or poverty business refer to a wide range of money-making activities that attract a large portion of their business from the poor. Businesses in the poverty industry often include payday loan centers, pawnshops, rent-to-own centers, casinos, liquor stores, lotteries, tobacco stores, credit card companies, and bail-bond services.[1][2][3][4] Illegal ventures such as loansharking might also be included. The poverty industry makes roughly US$33 billion a year in the United States.[5][page needed] In 2010, elected American federal officials received more than $1.5 million in campaign contributions from poverty-industry donors.[6]
Put a little money in the elected officials pockets for a big payoff! Look at all the government services that contract out also, and contractors make money not by serving the people, but finding the cheapest way or a way to not at all serve the people. They also like to grow their base in order to bring in more money - think "head count".
Nope, there is no incentive for the government/politicians to end poverty.
There are a lot of different ways to look at the original post, and I'm going to say something that will probably not go over well, and it's more on the personal level.
I think there are people who deserve to be poor.
When I was a child, about once a month my grandparents (who raised me) would take me down to Naples, NY where the rest of my grandmother's family lived. Brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles. I loved visiting all of them, except one family. This particular family made Ma & Pa Kettle look good. True squalor. And why? They had come from the same extended family as all the other families we visited. All the families had decent houses, worked on their own farms, or at other jobs including Widmer's Wine, had decent cars, good food. Except the one family who couldn't stay employed, were physically dirty (disgustingly so), had a shack to live in right in the middle of what looked like a junk yard. Equal opportunity with all the other members of the family. But their house was a pig style, and they were the pigs. I used to refuse to get out of the car if we visited them.
And then there was my sister. She quit high school 2 months before she would have graduated for no apparent reason. She wasn't pregnant or anything like that, she just didn't like going to school. She went the druggie-booze route her whole life. Literally worked less in her entire life than I worked in one year. Would get jobs and quit them or get fired within weeks. I would drive 900 miles once a year to visit my mother; she wouldn't drive the 1 mile to see me. She lived with a somewhat likable guy (though a dead head) and one day asked me why when I visited Florida I didn't drive that 1 mile to see her. My answer: "Well, I just drove 900 miles, I think you could drive 1. And you haven't had a working toilet in your house for 7 years".
I think there are people who deserve to live in poverty. I'm not talking about truly mentally ill people, or handicapped people, or the families I've worked with where the parents both work full time jobs and still have trouble making ends meet. But ya gotta try before I want to help or want my tax dollars to help. And some just don't try.
Yes it is. And to motivate all young women to DELAY having their first child...
as the daughters of more stable homes will generally do as a matter of course.
(the 'course' being the education, matriculation and aspiration they have available)
I think you should include young men in your prescription. Young women do not just magically fall pregnant, after all. There are many young, immature men who are fathers. A young man who fathers a child at a young age is legally obligated to contribute support. Sometimes a young man lives with the young woman who is the child’s mother.
Young parenthood is a way to hold yourself back, for sure. But I think there should be community support for young families. And bc pills should be sold OTC. The latter should happen tomorrow. There is no need for a gatekeeper to this med, after decades of use by millions of women.
There is some support for young, poor families, to be sure. But we are not birthing enough children to replace our current population. We should be providing better safety nets, IMO.
When couples delay giving birth, they often meet with fertility issues. There is also that.
I am in my 30s, a traveled American for sure. Going away to Europe and seeing things feels like a different world. I don’t care about European cities as much as I do about American cities because I am a native.
I have been to major cities ever since I was growing up. As a passenger who always sat in the back seat, I always loved taking in the view, as I am originally from the North East NYC region. I thought Washington D.C. was going to be neat and tidy. I learned there are poor areas of D.C., just as probably every major city. I was surprised by this when I was younger.
As I grew up, I learned I shouldn’t be surprised by what I saw. But I had this deep inside feeling that I wanted to see America’s major cities improved financially.
Beverly Hills California is about the rich and famous. If you go the poor areas of Los Angeles, there is a different world. It still amazes me wealth and poverty are happening simultaneously and close to each other.
So why can’t more money be given to provide resources to those in need? Why can’t where the money being made be made more to give away for poor people? When you have poverty, you will often times have criminal behavior, as a way to find money, which can lead to violence. Doesn’t the government realize this cycle?
We have capitalism in this country. No mandate for the government to help poor people, it's always only been a patchwork system of laws to help the poor, which are often fought quite heavily by politicians who represent the wealthy.
It wasn't until FDR in 1935 that we got social security for example- and it was heavily opposed as "socialism".
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