HorseSqueeze... All of it... This is nothing more than excusing mediocrity by establishing these poor, helpless people as victims of society. The biggest barrier that most of America's poor experiences is themselves. Do you know why the rich get richer and the poor get poorer every year? It's because they both continue doing what they know best. The rich continue to seek out opportunities to improve themselves and their economic situation taking action when appropriate, while the vast majority of our poor continue to make bad decisions, overspend and generally do a lot of stupid things. They are victims of their own demise.
The rich get richer because they seek out opportunities? Drug themselves from the muck and became triumphant due to their tenacity and hard work? Riiight...let's just look at America's examples of some of the richest people who "made it" from their "good decisions" and "hard work:"
Bill Gates - Son of a lawyer and bank board director. He was sent to an exclusive preparatory school in Seattle. Must have been hard work to convince his rich parents to do that. Then he went to Harvard. I'm sure it was a hard, long haul for him to go from a ritzy preparatory school to Harvard. Definitely drug himself out of that shitty situation.
Warren Buffett - His father was a businessman and later member of Congress. After school, he was employed by his daddy's business. I'm sure that took some hard work and great decisions.
Michael Bloomberg - Son of a real estate agent. Nothing spectacular, right? Except when you look at the fact that he grew up in Brighton, Massachusetts, where the median home price is $495,000 and the cost of living is 30% higher than the national average. His hard work took him from rich to richer. Must have been a struggle.
Larry Page - Son of two computer science professors at Michigan State. Went to Stanford. He worked hard at becoming a computer genius; it obviously had nothing to do with his parents' income and knowledge of computers that they imparted on him from an early age.
Of course, the list goes on and on, but you get the point. Many of the richest people didn't necessarily grow up in the lap of luxury, so to speak, but the vast majority of them at least grew up in comfortable situations. I'm not stating that, in order to succeed in life, you
have to start from financially comfortable beginnings, but it makes it much, much easier. And, of course, I realize that these are extreme examples, but it's relatively representative of generally stagnant socioeconomic classes.
Take the educational system as a prime example. If you grow up in a decent area, you get a decent education. You have access to information and supplies due to your decent school. You are placed into a better situation from which to advance. That is, if your family can afford to live in a decent area. What if you can't? Then you don't go to a decent school. We are encouraged to confine our attention to the child and to dwell on all his alleged defects, which are also allegedly shared by his parents due to their supposed unwillingness to try to succeed. Labeling lower class children and families as lazy becomes a generalized explanation for the educational disaster area known as the inner-city school.
To me, it's a chicken and the egg debate. Are they poor because they're stupid and lazy, or are they stupid and lazy because they're poor? But then, what about the poor people who aren't lazy, but there's no chance of advancement for them? They don't have the education or practical knowledge to invent something. They don't have the education to advance to a management position, assuming that their line of work even has such a position available. And in this economy, they may not even have a job or the chance to look for a "better" job.
I agree that there are tons of simply lazy people out there. In fact, I'll even go as far as to say that most poor people have probably gotten themselves into that situation by only taking what comes easily to them and not trying for anything more. But to suggest that, for those of you who aren't lazy, all you need to do to earn more money is get off your ass and get a better job? I think that this "solution" fails to address a lot of problems and a lot of real barriers that prevent many people from just strolling into a new economic class.
I don't think that anyone really argued the hypothetical straw tiger that you're whining about, but you can continue... 
If no one made the argument that areas with high crime rates are mostly populated with morally reprehensible and generally irresponsible people, then my point stands as correct: a high crime rate in an area has virtually no correlation to voting results in that area.
38 Replies
7421 Views