Is Poverty In America More A Choice Or A Condition?

[homesick_american 1]

It is superhuman to break out of this. And it totally depends on parenting that raises you to be resilient and persevering. Many hopeless parents cannot embrace and preach resilience and perseverance if they don't believe it exists.

Rubbish.

One of my friends who grew up poor had a mother who was bipolar and off her meds, and was in and out of institutions her entire life. Her father was a drunk who abandoned the family after the mother was institutionalized for the last time. Oh, and did I mention the profoundly autistic brother?

Your generalizations are not correct.

It's the same as in the UK; I'm sure I don't have to tell you that.

But probably to a lesser extent (I think..... I may be wrong.)

ROFLMAO....no, I strenuously disagree. In the UK, you can be on welfare your entire life. It's a family business passed down from generation to generation. In the United States, you can no longer do this and it has improved the lot of the poor immensely.

Plus, UK benefits are so stingy I can't see how anyone survives on them. The deprivation is staggering.

[Ban Hammer 13,345]

for anyone who's under 35 and out of work, there's a real easy solution to it all. join the military

[homesick_american 1]

for anyone who's under 35 and out of work, there's a real easy solution to it all. join the military

Don't you have to at least have finished high school or have a GED to join the military, though? A lot of people caught in poverty don't finish high school so maybe the military isn't an option for them.

[Ban Hammer 13,345]

for anyone who's under 35 and out of work, there's a real easy solution to it all. join the military

Don't you have to at least have finished high school or have a GED to join the military, though? A lot of people caught in poverty don't finish high school so maybe the military isn't an option for them.

maybe you're wrong

[homesick_american 1]

for anyone who's under 35 and out of work, there's a real easy solution to it all. join the military

Don't you have to at least have finished high school or have a GED to join the military, though? A lot of people caught in poverty don't finish high school so maybe the military isn't an option for them.

maybe you're wrong

*shrug* I wouldn't join the military anyway.

[Ban Hammer 13,345]

for anyone who's under 35 and out of work, there's a real easy solution to it all. join the military

Don't you have to at least have finished high school or have a GED to join the military, though? A lot of people caught in poverty don't finish high school so maybe the military isn't an option for them.

maybe you're wrong

*shrug* I wouldn't join the military anyway.

what makes you think you're good enough too? or that you'd be accepted?

[homesick_american 1]

what makes you think you're good enough too? or that you'd be accepted?

LOL...you're joking, right? The US military has been lowering its standards for years; now even fatties and druggies can get in. The military used to tell them to take a hike.

[Ban Hammer 13,345]

what makes you think you're good enough too? or that you'd be accepted?

LOL...you're joking, right? The US military has been lowering its standards for years; now even fatties and druggies can get in. The military used to tell them to take a hike.

you never watched starship troopers, eh?

Edited June 7, 2007 by charlesandnessa

[KarenCee 3]

Charles...give it up. You can't argue with a know it all.

[Fuzzness 2]

does the person with a masters degree chose to not get hired after sending out 200 applications and not having one interview, simply because they either are from outside the area or don't know anyone or have any connections?

[JamalNTam 1]

for anyone who's under 35 and out of work, there's a real easy solution to it all. join the military

Don't you have to at least have finished high school or have a GED to join the military, though? A lot of people caught in poverty don't finish high school so maybe the military isn't an option for them.

maybe you're wrong

*shrug* I wouldn't join the military anyway.

Yup - coz you have never been in the situation where it may be one of your only options to get ahead in life.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Seems to me noone in their right mind would willingly choose to be poor.

You got that right. Unfortunately lots of people are not in their right mind.

I voted "choice" - assuming we're talking about extreme poverty and not the people who think they're underpaid.

I'm not sure that apathy counts as a choice.

It does--not making a decision early means generally you will be forced to make the wrong decision later.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Seems to me noone in their right mind would willingly choose to be poor.

You got that right. Unfortunately lots of people are not in their right mind.

I voted "choice" - assuming we're talking about extreme poverty and not the people who think they're underpaid.

I'm not sure that apathy counts as a choice.

It does--not making a decision early means generally you will be forced to make the wrong decision later.

As I said there are parallels with depression, in that for many people its fundamentally a state of mind. That's not the same as genuinely lazy people who cynically take charity and government handouts. A person's outlook constrains their choices - and that has little do with desire. A person might want to change their circumstances but be clueless as to how to go about it.

Motivated, successful people can't seem to understand that being unsuccessful is anythign short of laziness. As if people could "pull themselves together" merely by being told a few home truths. Again - that ties in with depression and the stigma attached to it that happy people really can't relate to or understand. You don't choose to be depressed, or have bad self-esteem - that's just how it is.

[homesick_american 1]

Yup - coz you have never been in the situation where it may be one of your only options to get ahead in life.

I have never been in that situation, but that is not why I would not join the military.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Yup - coz you have never been in the situation where it may be one of your only options to get ahead in life.

I have never been in that situation, but that is not why I would not join the military.

Wouldn’t be for me either. The way the military has been used in recent years (in fact going all the way back to Vietnam & Korea), I’m not convinced that I would really be “serving my country”, certainly not in the best way. Those uber-patriotic enlistment commercials seem rather euphemistic to me...