More on poverty
Posted by R. Neal
The Marguerite Casey Foundation has released the results of a poll on attitudes towards poverty:
For now, we still live in a country where hard work is occasionally rewarded, and along with a hand up or a lucky break can still lift people out of poverty. Unfortunately, those currently holding the reins of power seem hell-bent on undermining progressive policies that make this possible. Their culture of corruption and cronyism benefits the Corporate Church of State, not the people.
OK, then.
The Marguerite Casey Foundation has released the results of a poll on attitudes towards poverty:
The dramatic differences between rich and poor that were on view during Hurricane Katrina also can be seen by how those two groups view the causes of poverty. The poor largely believe they were dealt a bad hand while the rich are more apt to say poverty is from lack of effort.The encouraging thing is that half of those polled who have higher incomes recognize that there are external factors affecting poverty. Not everything is as simple as conservatives would have us believe.
Polling by the Marguerite Casey Foundation also found that both rich and poor are optimistic about future prospects for their children.
Those at the poverty level or the near poor were almost twice as likely to say factors beyond their control are responsible for their impoverished state. Those who make higher incomes were evenly split on whether poverty is caused by external factors or by people not making enough effort.
Most in the public — at least three quarters — were aware of the big gap between rich and poor in this country well before Katrina put those differences in the spotlight.
"We're looking more and more like a developing country," said Luz Vega-Marquis, president of the foundation. "We have a concentration of wealth in the top 5 percent, but what is happening to the middle-class and poor people?"
For now, we still live in a country where hard work is occasionally rewarded, and along with a hand up or a lucky break can still lift people out of poverty. Unfortunately, those currently holding the reins of power seem hell-bent on undermining progressive policies that make this possible. Their culture of corruption and cronyism benefits the Corporate Church of State, not the people.
OK, then.
7 Comments:
Most people forget that by being born in America, you pretty much won the lottery. Being born into good circumstances is better. If Dubya had been born into a poor black family in Mississippi, he would be clearing brush off somebody else's farm. He would be better off than being born into a lower caste in India, but he would not have achieved crap.
People's views tend to depend on what life they were born into. Upward mobility does exist, with a lot of luck, but most people who scream it as a defense for their views, did not need it.
Upward mobility may be more realistic than you believe. In the book, "The Millionaire Next Door", they found "Fewer than 20 percent inherited 10 percent or more of their wealth". While external factors certainly do have an impact, the more you believe your fate is determined by external factors the less you see your ability to control the outcome.
But something is definitely wrong, because the gap has been increasing for over 2 decades as shown in this CSMonitor article. This happened during the Clinton years also. Progressive policies need to be more progressive, or something.
I would like to see more emphasis in schools of at all levels on saving, investing, business, etc. Maybe this would help some.
I would like to see more emphasis in schools of at all levels on saving, investing, business, etc. Maybe this would help some.
I couldn't agree more on that point. I remember in high school they had "home ec" classes. Don't know if they still do, but they need to have classes on basic money skills, like opening bank accounts, balancing your checkbook, managing credit cards, interest and fees, the value of protecting your credit rating, thrift responsible borrowing, etc. etc.
Some kids you see working cash registers can't even make change without the register telling them how much.
You know, in school I was taught about checks and money and cash registers and stuff. Hell, I remember learning the correct way to read a map in school.
Yeah, Ted Turner only inherited a few million. It must have been really hard to make a few billion, seing how that was less than 1/10 of one percent of his wealth.
If you are born a poor black child in rural Mississippi, it is going to be hard to achieve wealth, power, or prestige. Yeah, it was possible, but not likely a few years or decades ago. Now it would be almost impossible, unless you rap or play ball. And even then it would be hard, if not impossible.
gttim - You really hit on one of the problems I see. A lot of kids, especially blacks, over emphasizing sports to the detriment of academics. You have a better chance of becoming a doctor than a professional athlete.
And I'm not arguing against you point about poor blacks any where. It's tough, real tough.
Upward mobility does exist, with a lot of luck, but most people who scream it as a defense for their views, did not need it.
This is very true. We started out dirt poor (the stories I could tell) even though we came from a fairly typical middle-class upbringing. After goofing around for a while we realized we'd have to put down the bong and go to work if we wanted to eat and pay rent. Eventually we turned out OK, I think, at least for now.
Even though we were dirt poor at first, our parents were there and able to help when we weren't too proud to ask for it. A lot of folks don't have that to fall back on. I can't imagine how much tougher it would be to try to work your way up and out without any sort of safety net at all.
I can't imagine how much tougher it would be to try to work your way up and out without any sort of safety net at all.
That is so true. I have a brother and a nephew that would be into God knows what at this point if they hadn't been bailed out by family members over the years.
Where would Bush be if Daddy's friends hadn't bailed him out of Armbusto and his other oil venture? What if no one had loaned him money to invest in the ball team so he could get out early and make a bundle?
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