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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sun Tzu who wrote (212761)	7/20/2007 5:16:37 PM
From: D. Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 794040

Obviously we have not met this challenge or poverty would have long been eliminated from the richest country in the world That's assuming everyone has the same initiative and willingness to sacrifice and put forth the requisite level of effort to get out of poverty. It also ignores cultural factors that affect that negatively. The difference is apparent when you contrast native poor upbringing with immigrants that come here with $50 from a Third World country and succeed. Drive and initiative is a significant factor.

To: Sun Tzu who wrote (212761)	7/20/2007 5:24:27 PM
From: Brumar89	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 794040

Breaking the "cycle of poverty": How not to be poor. Avoiding long-term poverty is not rocket science. First, graduate from high school. Second, get married before you have children, and stay married. Third, work at any kind of job, even one that starts out paying the minimum wage. And, finally, avoid engaging in criminal behavior. Walter Williams The path to a more successful life is clear: stay in school. Even if it's a crummy school, stay in and graduate. Get a job and keep it, no matter how low it seems to you. And wait until you're married to have children. In fact, wait until your twenties to have children. Work first and make sure you can afford a child. Juan Williams

To: Sun Tzu who wrote (212761)	7/20/2007 5:30:35 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 794040

I'd say at the very least, to effectively break the cycle of poverty one needs have his realistic basic living needs met, a safe environment (read mostly free of violent crime) and access to proper education. We can agree on that, too. Obviously we have not met this challenge or poverty would have long been eliminated from the richest country in the world. No, we haven't. But I would argue that a large part of the reason for that is that, in a free country, there is little that we can do about poor parenting except jawbone about it. Instead we act like it's not primarily the fault of the parents' responsibility shortfall and our incessant counter-jawboning to the effect that the world owes them a living. That's a resilient double-dipper cycle, all but impossible to dig out of. There were a couple of major studies that looked into how likely one is to move up the social ladder and the US did not fare very well in it. It worked extremely well for my generation and previous ones. Went downhill from there. My $100K couple, to their credit, knew not to bring children into the world they couldn't provide for.