A Discussion on Poverty - No Mudslinging Allowed

I don't know who NPR is, but this article popped up in a window on my computer so I scanned over it.... Then went back and read the piece in earnest and am posting it here for your consumption.

When I read the piece more closely, I was personally interested in whether or not it addressed the desire to be productive, or work ethic. It did not address a persons desire to improve his condition in the least. It only addressed the disparity of the haves versus have nots.

Now mind you, I have lived on the side of the have nots far longer than I have lived comfortably. I saw "the men" come to take my mommas car away while she sobbed uncontrollably at the door. I been there. I know from experience that a human beings condition cannot and will not change until he has the desire to change his condition.

He dedicates a great deal of this piece to the disparity of "the haves" using their mortgage interest deduction and the disparity that exists with low income housing. I can tell you that those using their mortgage interest deductions are caring for their homes and neighborhoods. If I drive you through the low income housing, you will be inclined to lock your door.

And why would the desire to be productive and succeed not be a gleaming light at the end of the tunnel to reach for any longer? Why would we choose to not reward performance and rather reward non-performance? How can it be that in America we have redefined success as a negative? It goes against everything the human condition has been about for thousands of years. Make me understand why rewarding success is not the correct course of action? One successful business in a run down neighborhood tends to elevate the success of the others. A successful sibling tends to motivate his brothers and sisters to arise as well. Conversely failure breeds failure. So why on earth have we become so loathsome towards those that have worked to produce something and rather attempt to elevate those that have no desire to be elevated? Make me understand please.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health...w-desmond-inequality?utm_source=pocket-newtab

 

Funny, isn't it, how Desmond chose to write about how much he wasn't getting from others, rather than writing about how to motivate and push himself to produce the things he needed / desired?

Talk about a lack of growth . . .

 

Sorry, ANYTHING PUT OUT BY NPR is Commie subversive crap and I don't read it. All Americans PAY FOR THIS PROPAGANDA serving station that undercuts our traditions and morals. They should be taken off the public wallet and have to exist on donations from enemy foreign governments and george "Commie" Sorus who would be #1 on my list of things to do.

 

You speak the man's name as though he has a recognizable reputation. I have no earthly idea, really. I thought today about some local college football players that play for the Carolina Panthers practice squad. These guys didn't dedicate their endless hours of work-outs and skill set practice only to arrive on a practice squad. They want to be in the big show. And the savvy players recognize that is s step toward that goal rather than spouting off about how unfair their hand of cards is..... I just don't get it. For 237 years we all felt blessed to live in the land of prosperity and opportunity and have spent the last ten years complaining so loudly that young folks don't even know anymore that opportunity awaits them only if they put in in the sweat equity.

 

Once again, you've posted something that should be a sticky at the top of this forum, MD.

Folks need to learn to play the hand they're dealt. There is not a single one among us that is exactly equal to any other. Equal outcomes are not guaranteed... and shouldn't be.

 

I always wondered why the Democrat party and RINO Republicans have always been more interested in starting wars then ending world hunger and raising the standard of living in third world nations which past facts show lowers overpopulation in growing economies.
I’m talking about building economies for people to work and thrive in.

 

If you read Desmond’s statements you get a real grasp on this person’s (and unfortunately many others) perspective.

“If we're homeowners and... we deduct the interest of our mortgage from our tax bill — that's a government benefit. And many of us say, "Well, that's very different than a housing subsidy or food stamps." But I disagree. Both of those things cost the government money.”

This is a common belief among progressives, socialist democrats, and leftists. They believe that government has money and they allow you to exist. Instead the opposite is the case.
I encourage @Mopar Dude, and others, to reread this article and ponder on each of the opines of the author. It will be clear as glass why we are in the world we are in today.
By the way, NPR is so far left they even fired Juan Williams.

 

He’s another line that just jumped out to me:

“This one statistic that I calculated just blew me away. So a recent study was published and it showed that if the top 1% of Americans just paid the taxes they owed, not paid more taxes, “

They just paid the taxes they owed. Think about that!

 

I tried to go look at that quote, but apparently my phone won’t allow me to link up to the article and I was on my work computer earlier…… But it would seem that I am asking the wrong questions here. If it seems we are to regard our existence as Americans as subservient rather than being blessed to live with the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as granted to me and all Americans in our founding documents, then it would seem we have reverted to pre-1776 oppression. Have we reverted to this kind of hierarchy? Am I expected to kneel before the activist liberal hierarchy now? Would this be why our activist lawmakers talk down to me and others as though the electorate has become their servant class?…. Really? Is this where we have ended up?? And we continue to elect/hire these people?

 

all? You speak as if many in this country do not and never did exist. But I suppose in your perception that does not represent any inconsistency.

Like the working poor?

 

I think because many, especially Americans, live well beyond what they need.

Consider this: we have roughly 34 million food insecure people in America, but we waste and throw out over 100 billion meals worth of food per year.

Or this: there's about 16 million vacant housing units in the U.S. and we have less than 1 million homeless people.

We have way more than plenty to eliminate hunger and homelessness for all, but we choose not to, which I (and many) believe is morally wrong.

 

Good Lord!
I better blow my face off, because, well, the other guy doesn't have everything I have.

 

This article does not address the reasons these resources are disposed of. Why are those on snap programs more likely to be obese? Now you should know this is a loaded question, but can you defend your argument?

Did you consider these vaccines are not where all the homeless are?


Do you or anyone you know own one of these vacant homes? If you do, why aren’t you / they letting the homeless live in it?

 

Agreed. I personally find it atrocious that any person would drive a car that cost six figures or own a 5000sf home. However I realize they earned that opportunity by doing something well enough that they earned that right. If you fail to reward exceptional merit, you lose the creative input that exceptional minds afford us all.

My baby brother worked himself half to death for year’s building, renovating and otherwise improving dilapidated properties and now lives comfortably maintaining and renting many dozens of residential properties. He is soft hearted as I am and what he discovered is that when he led with his heart, it cost him a great deal of money in damaged properties….. This is human nature and you can take this to the bank. Something that is gifted and not earned is not cared for. Take a drive through your local government assisted housing and then tell me I am wrong.

This is exactly the point. Since the dawn of history the best hunter ate better than the rest of the group…. Paul said it best in Thessalonians, “Those who will not work shall not eat”….. This isn’t a new lesson. There are government programs galore to help people on their feet. Problem is, these programs are more often regarded as a means to a living… Any man that wants to eat should want to work. And if he is standing in the unemployment line, he is not actively looking for work.

Providing for your family… Rising in your profession… This builds human character and has for thousands of years. When you build character, criminal behavior wanes, personal integrity rises and everyone wins. That is the literal definition of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”…. Don’t rob people of that.

 

Amen!

 

Eating healthy is actually quite expensive. The point isn't to say that waste food should be given to the hungry rather than thrown out, it was to demonstrate the excess. It dispels the idea that there isn't enough for everyone, there is. If you want to think of it in an economic sense, you might say we have excess supply not being used and excess demand not being met. Somehow it's more profitable to waste rather than meet the demand.

Same could be said of housing. I do realize with both food and housing the supply isn't always exactly where the demand is (as you pointed out in the housing example), but the point is again to illustrate the excess.

Hahaha, no. I don't know anyone who owns empty homes, nor do I own even a home of my own.

I disagree wholeheartedly. What is "merit" here? It's a cliche that most exceptional creatives of the human race, artists, are rarely recognized until after death. Why did Vincent Van Gogh paint? Why did Sylvia Plath or Emily Dickinson write?

Creativity is in human nature, and I believe given the freedom to act upon it instead of toiling for survival is the best way to foster it. Creativity only having value as long as it can be monitized is as narrow as it is bleak.

Where you're wrong is that you're implicitly saying that people belong on the street rather than in a house. Is it better to have people sleeping on your lawn rather than being in the unit next door? They can't just not exist amymore, and quarantining them to certain areas a la NIMBYisms isn't a better solution.

Everyone except those who don't. Of which there are plenty. ~1 in 10 Americans are food insecure. Do you really think 1 in 10 people just don't work hard enough? Or is there maybe something bigger wrong? It's something we have the means to fix, we simply lack the desire and follow through.

 

It’s just cause and effect, Gene. Don’t put your finger in the socket or you get shocked. Don’t put your hand on the stove or you get burned….. Don’t work, don’t eat……. Now I grant you that there are those out there that need help and we have the safety nets in place to help them. We have a problem in this nation and it is a willful disregard for work. We have to change that in people.

 

Do we though? I know that's the line a lot of media figures, but it's not a claim backed up by unemployment or workforce participation rate.

If the claim isn't measurable, but rather only observable in narrative form, why would I believe it?

 

Because, until you actually live the experience, you youngsters believe what you want to believe . . . perception is reality, until you grapple with reality.

 

Can you consider the possibility that what you experience in your local bubble, and what you see on tv isn't the truth? Certainly neither is an objective measurement of the problem.