John,
I think this deserves its own thread. My contribution:
- Poor people are handicapped by poor schools, that fail to teach basic skills like reading.
Billy
In my neighborhood highschool (one of the biggies of the state) only 40 kids out of all kids in the graduating class get to a college of any kind. Not 40% but only FORTY actual people go to college. Now that is sad.
College should be free, even if it just for community colleges.
Although community colleges aren’t free, if a person wishing to apply has actual financial need they can attend college free of charge. So expense isn’t really the issue.
If everyone had a college degree, it would have no more value than a Highschool diploma does now.
What keeps people in poverty?
The man. That’s it, I am pretty sure it’s the man.
Are you saying that having more knowledge, and a specific skillset, has no value?
I think that what keeps people in poverty is mostly habit. It takes creativity and a lot of effort to improve your financial situation. For example, if you are just (barely) living from paycheck to paycheck, it takes some creative thinking and extra effort to break out of that (like working extra, or saving a few dollars a month). Simillarly if you have a problem with debt, it is easiest to continue to get further in debt.
Another factor that keeps people in poverty is that they wouldn’t know how to handle more money even if they had it . The ability to handle money well is much more important than how much money you make. The spending patterns that people develop is what makes poor people get poorer, and also what makes rich people get richer.
I guess its all in their thinking and spending patterns. 
I believe a major contributing factor is the lack of family planning. All you have to do is drive through an impoverished neighborhood and one thing that really stands out is the large number of children. Young women having multiple children and the absence of the children’s father(s) in their lives. Raising children is very expensive.
That’s not what he is saying.
Let me make an example. For simplicity, I will keep the numbers small.
Suppose there are 100 high school seniors in the whole country who graduate from high school. Also suppose there are 95 available jobs in the whole country.
If 40 people graduate from college, their knowledge and skillsets will get them good paying jobs and the rest will work at McDonalds, Walmart, etc.
If all 100 of them graduate from college, there will still only be 95 jobs. Forty people will get the jobs (which no longer pay as well because now everyone has a college degree) and the other 60 college graduates will be competing for 55 jobs at McDonalds, Walmart, etc.
I know, I know. Bugman and I both have the same bad attitude.
I wouldn’t say that it would be the same as not having a college education. If that were true, it would be the same if noone went to school at all. Even though it would make it so everyone was “equal” they would probably have a more diverse set of skills, and would hopefully know more about how the world works. Also there is not a finite number of jobs available. More jobs and more money can be created. As long as it didn’t make everyone really lazy, I think it would be better if everyone went to college. However it should not be “required” that people go to college; anyone should be able to choose rather or not they go to college
Here is an example of someone who didn’t let their circumstances keep them in the ghetto. I actually was so impressed with this kid’s story, I bought five of his books, and have so far given away two. Farrah Gray If this kid can do it, why can’t everyone? What did he have that everyone else in his community seems to be missing?
What your saying is not that the way they think keeps people in poverty, it is fatigue. If you are just (barely) living from paycheck to paycheck you are probably knackered. And can only cope with now, not the future.
What keeps people in poverty is being poor - the future isn’t something to look forward to and plan about, but is something to worry about if you can bare to think about it at all. As a prarent, you have no energy to help your children to overcome this and may not even help them eg with their reading (maybe because they have difficulty reading themselves). Any spare money is spent on helping to get through today eg smoking, drinking.
So, what keeps people poor is fatigue, being poo and needing to live for today.
Cathy
I think that family planning has a big part to do with it. Anf the fact that if you look at lots of poor families, theres only one parent. People should just use jimmyhats or if worse comes to worse get aboritions.
And for blacks, I think the fact that their forefathers were slaves has smething to do with it. So their great great, etc. grandfater was a slave, he was poor. that meant b/c he was balck and por, he couldn’t get an education, which ment he would be poor for th rest of his life. that also ment his kids were born into povery, and were discriminated against, so they never got a decent education, and it keeps repeating itself. As for today, where its easier to get in skool if you are a minority or poor, (affirmitive action is just reverse racisim) and there are tons of loans, etc. theres no reason anyone “can’t go to college.”
and thats how capitalisim works
Usually when going to college, you would not be studying the same thing as everyone else, but IF everyone did and all 40 of those jobs only needed the skillset taught, then yes, the pay would not be as well for those 40 that got the better than McD/Walmart jobs.
But in your example, you have 60 people with higher skills, typically with different skillsets. Are they going to settle for a job at McD or Walmart, or are they going to try to find another way such as starting a business to fill a need or want that they can see? With a High School diploma, they might not have had the skills to be able to start a company or to even have the vision to see the need in the marketplace. They have a better ability to create their own job and probably jobs for others.
- Gilby
I think one of the things that keeps people in poverty is greed. Some on the part of the poor people, but perhaps more on the part of everyone else.
the rich white man keeps everyone poor and/or oppressed.
Allegiance to poverty
Can someone budget carefully and raise a family of 4 in the poverty level, while working FT earning minimum wages at Wal-Mart?
no
but if they had only one or no kids, they could. and kids, that why we should stop breeding.
We can show many individual reasons. But, in my opinion, there are millions of cases where people are not taking responsibility for properly structuring the early lives of their kids.
I am not shirking my responsibility for my children.
Why is it my fault that some kid had a baby and then treated it poorly and didn’t him to read and didn’t make him do his homework and didn’t…? Shame on those sperm and egg donors. (“Parent” is a term of respect.)
- Fix the problem yourself: (Blame yourself if it doesn’t work)
The way up and out is to take some personal responsibility. Take care of your babies. If you don’t take care of your own offspring, shame on you…not shame on me. I’m taking care of my babies. That’s my responsibility.
We put schools out there for every child in america. Its a free education thru grade 12. But I can’t strap you down and force the knowledge into your brain. Education is not shoved into your head. Its invited in.
If Davy is 15 yrs old and can’t read…some of that is Davy’s fault…some of that is Davy’s daddy’s fault. Why is that my fault? Davy needs to sit his own butt down in front of a book. His eyes, his brain, his future. See Davy sit. See Davy read. See Davy make a better place for himself in the cold cruel world. Good for you Davy.
Since kids are irrisponsible, its up to the parents to sit Davy down and sweat the hard stuff. Kids are egocentric. They’ll just eat ice cream all day if you let them. Mom and Dad need to make them eat their spinach or they’ll turn out to be sickly and “the man” will hire a healthier worker because he/she will work better and not be on sick leave so much. Don’t blame “the man” for hiring the better choice. “The man” ain’t no idiot. He’s trying to get that multi-million dollar contract.
- If you really want me to take responsibility for fixing the problem: (Blame me if it doesn’t work)
But we can’t make parents out of people who don’t give a damn. So we have to work on the children. The system is way out of control. Kids are allowed to not pay attention in school. They’re allowed to bully the teachers. They’re allowed to disrupt. If we want to fix the kids, fix the schools. Since the kids have no self-control and no guidance at home and no discipline, I say stop pussy-footing around and turn the schools over to the likes of General Patton. Haircuts, uniforms. Discipline. No back talk. Sit up straight. Yes ma’am. Yes Sir. March in unison. We’ve all seen misfits come out of the military as productive and focused. Hospital corners on the beds. Polished belt buckles.
Maybe just do that in the early grades (K-6). Then less regulation will be necessary for Jr High and High School. Unless you prove to be a problem…we have a special school for you. Do you want to go to the special school? NO SIR, THANK YOU, SIR!