The first step is define poverty - I think we keep defining it up. To me, if you have a roof over your head, utilities paid and food then your not poor. Even if you have a low paying job, lets say $10 an hour - you can have all this if you work full-time, in some places it may take you 60 hours of work.
I do a lot of financial counseling, in most cases people simply are not working 40 hours and are not willing to work a bit more. I hear a lot from some folks - I should be able to live by working on 40 hours a week...and then there is the spending side. You dig in and see things like $200 a month for cable, you see no budget. Or my latest favorite, I have a young lady who just graduated with a masters degree, has $60K in debt and took a job starting at $30K per year. You should have seen her face when I told her she needed to get a PT job for a while so she could keep up with her debt. She informed me their was a program that allows her to only pay 10% of her income on the debt...I looked at her and ask her if she was ok paying on this for the next 20 years? She didn't have an answer.
In other words, most of it is ignorance. I get the generational stuff, I grew up dirt poor from a family that mismanaged everything, this is color blind thing.
I do agree that we should fold all the programs into one and give cash to the families in need. It probably will not work any better but will be cheaper to manage. Then rely on churches, other non govt groups to do the education and additional assistance.
I know this is hard to say, but pain can be the best teacher.
Edit to add: I read the article after I posted - it breaks my heart for these families. And yet, if you look at all the decisions, who's fault is it that her father was a crackhead. Why does Vanessa have all these kids and no father around? Why did Vanessa begin to cut class. A job will never solve these things, even a well paying one. How will her kids respond? The answer is thru some means (that known of us know) people stop making harmful decisions.
I do a lot of financial counseling, in most cases people simply are not working 40 hours and are not willing to work a bit more. I hear a lot from some folks - I should be able to live by working on 40 hours a week...and then there is the spending side. You dig in and see things like $200 a month for cable, you see no budget. Or my latest favorite, I have a young lady who just graduated with a masters degree, has $60K in debt and took a job starting at $30K per year. You should have seen her face when I told her she needed to get a PT job for a while so she could keep up with her debt. She informed me their was a program that allows her to only pay 10% of her income on the debt...I looked at her and ask her if she was ok paying on this for the next 20 years? She didn't have an answer.
In other words, most of it is ignorance. I get the generational stuff, I grew up dirt poor from a family that mismanaged everything, this is color blind thing.
I do agree that we should fold all the programs into one and give cash to the families in need. It probably will not work any better but will be cheaper to manage. Then rely on churches, other non govt groups to do the education and additional assistance.
I know this is hard to say, but pain can be the best teacher.
Edit to add: I read the article after I posted - it breaks my heart for these families. And yet, if you look at all the decisions, who's fault is it that her father was a crackhead. Why does Vanessa have all these kids and no father around? Why did Vanessa begin to cut class. A job will never solve these things, even a well paying one. How will her kids respond? The answer is thru some means (that known of us know) people stop making harmful decisions.
Last edited by:
blueraider_mike: Sep 16, 18 4:34