Poverty and Policy

[Laslow]

I have had interesting conversations with classic liberals which have not devolved into Trump, commies, or you guys do it too. I will concede that the New Deal did keep people from devastating poverty. You can debate how FDR handled the Depression, but his policies did keep people from literally starving. I would hope that liberals would be honest in their assessment of whether Lyndon Johnson's War On Poverty accomplished anything positive for the massive investment that was made. I had a conversation with a middle aged, wealthy man who went to business school that surprised me. He is a true believer in liberal policy. He was explaining how it was fair for people to pay other people's student loans. I couldn't grasp his argument, but he eventually got fed up with me when I asked if it was dangerous to make life too comfortable for the poor. He got angry and walked off and said people don't want to be poor. I worded it poorly. I know that nobody wants to be poor, but I don't think wealthy liberals have any idea what it is to live below the poverty line. In their mind's, free everything with no restrictions is nothing but positive. I was shocked that this wealthy man who went to business school had no awareness of any downside to high tax, high spending policy. People don't want to be poor, but it is very easy for people to get stuck in poverty on government programs. If you get free food, healthcare, phones, school, ect, it is going to effect if people go to work. It is literally a lifestyle choice not to work. I am not talking welfare fraud, I am talking about the rules for aid are so lax that it is a perfectly legal alternative for people to decide not to work. This same wealthy liberal told me that without a college degree, a person couldn't have a reasonable life. Let me ask you, of the kids you went to high school with, how many of them could or should have gone to college? Making people pay for other's school is not going to make all of the other kids miraculously go to college to learn how to code. The man I talked to was completely unaware of any downside to liberal policy. It made me wonder how many democrats literally see no problems whatsoever with the current war on poverty? I always thought liberals were aware of the problems, it never occurred to me they are completely unaware of what their policies are doing.

 

[1srelluc]

You should go back to school just to learn to paragraph.

 

[Laslow]

Thanks a bunch. wow

 

[1srelluc]

Thanks a bunch. wow

A job of work is a job of work even if it's just pecking on a computer....Do it right.

 

[Paleman]

You should go back to school just to learn to paragraph.

Unnecessary negative comment. Maybe you should go back to school and learn how to comprehend without the aid of paragraphs.

 

[1srelluc]

Unnecessary negative comment. Maybe you should go back to school and learn how to comprehend without the aid of paragraphs.

If you want to white knight for the paragraph impaired then go right ahead.

 

[Laslow]

A job of work is a job of work even if it's just pecking on a computer....Do it right.

Hey, that's great. That is almost as useful as Trump sucks.

 

[Laslow]

I'll make it simple. Are liberals aware of how their policies affect those in poverty? Until I met the rich business guy, I thought they had to know. Now I think many are not even aware of any negative consequences.

 

[1srelluc]

Hey, that's great. That is almost as useful as Trump sucks.

Well you have had 15 minutes to straighten that mess out....Get to it and then I might read it.

 

[gipper]

I find these debates on poverty most disingenuous.

The USG has spent multiple TRILLIONS of dollars since 1980, yet millions of Americans live in or near poverty. It’s a matter of distorted priorities, because our government is controlled by the elite and big corporations.

Further proof we live in a failed state.

 

[ChemEngineer]

"I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer." --Benjamin Franklin, "Management of the Poor" (1766)



The more is given the less the people will work for themselves, and the less they work the more their poverty will increase. – Leo Tolstoy

"Consider why shrinking government is moral. The more the federal government provides for people, the more it deprives them not only of their dignity, but of one of the most sacred rights.’ - Thomas Jefferson