No they are laying blame on behaviors. You are laying the “differences” in people.
All the posts I referred to used descriptions of people’s behaviors and results of those behaviors. If a guy robs a bank he is different than law-abiding people. The act, or as you say, his behavior, is what makes him a bank robber. It is their behavior that makes them different, and being different is the definition of the adjective “other.”
Merriam Webster defines the adjective “other” as:
a: being the one (as of two or more) remaining or not included, held on with one hand and waved with the other one
I think we are closer.
It is the behavior that is the cause and affect of a poverty rate.
Not because they are other people that aren’t like us… as you put it.
In my college years and after, I lived in an area know for poverty, Appalachia. I have some insight but am not an expert.
In the early 70’s I attended a branch of the University of Virgina called (at the time) Clinch Valley College in Wise, Virginia. At that time, it was recently enlarged to a 4 year school. There was no real industry there. Many of the students were looking to teach. Music was big there. My RA was a known musician as was the chancellor of the school. The twn was known for it’s bluegrass festival.
I began to visit and eventually work for a radio station in Kentucky. There I lived in the same building as the radio station. It was the old Consolidated Coal Company building. Coal built the town. On the floor below was an office where people with pneumoconiosis (black lung). They would line up and it was chilling to see. These guys were working deep into coal mines some with dubious safety protocols I believe. Across the street was a store which sold clothing and linens. They would have a ‘white sale’ but everything there was dingy because many houses were burning coal. You would see coal lying on the ground next to sharp turns in the road where it fell off the trucks. Many of my friends either worked in a coal mine or had a relative who did.
These people had pride and made do. Many did not realize they were poor until Ladybird Johnson came and told them. I have googled photos of poverty in Appalacia and one photo I found was a house I recognized a short drive down the road in McRoberts. In 2019, 36% of the residents are in poverty. Estimated median household income in 2019: $28,699 (half the U.S. average). Median gross rent in 2019: $435.
Even though it has been promised that poverty needs to be eradicated, it seems a never-ending problem. Sure, there is a new highway and a couple films were made there (Fire Down Below) and I believe Intuit has workers in the area.
But jobs are still hard to find and pay is not great.
A couple years ago, flooding happened and residents are still recovering.
Compared to some other countries, these people are living in the lap of luxury. Compared to many places in the U.S. they are far, far from it. Keep in mind that there will ALWAYS be poor in America. I think we use the term poverty as we do ‘the upper 1%’. It is a way to classify people. Like the saying in the movie ‘Oh God!’ (George Burns). (paraphrasing) Without evil there cannot be good. What is left without right? Up without down? Rich without poor?
Anyway, I just thought I would tell a personal view from where I lived for years.
I also wanted to mention something else. Here on the Big Island I live on a shoprt road with about 8 farms. The farm next to me has a shack on it. The next to last on the road was listed for over $1 million dollars. It is not unusual here to see expensive houses and shacks next to each other.
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So, to use your logic:
If there was a town in which all of the people on the west side of town walked backwards and all the people on the east side walked normally, it would be improper to call the people living on the the other side of town, the ones who didn’t walk like you, the other people? Is that your position?
I would call them people that choose to walk however they walk.
The unasked question is what makes them have deleterious behavior?
Most would conclude that anti-social, criminal behavior results from poor values and lack of morals.
A bank robber, for example does not believe that stealing is wrong. He probably has a poor work ethic as well. And policemen tell me that most criminals are just plain dumb.
I’d like to hear your theory behind the first assumption, how would you know that? I can see how your bias concerning deadbeats would assume a poor work ethic. And yes, I agree that most folks in law enforcement say crooks are dumb… they’re likely right about that or they wouldn’t get caught.
No, most deadbeats I run across don’t have an income problem, they have a money management problem. Then they rationalize not paying their creditors with liberal lines like, “Ah, he has plenty of money anyway, way more than me. He doesn’t deserve my hard-earned money.”
You doubt criminals lack ethics? If you were taught from a young age that taking something not yours was a sin, how in the world do you think you would come to do it on a regular basis?
Sadly, we are living in a post-religious America. Morals and good values used to be passed down from generation to generation via religion and schools. Now we have a cesspool of secularism, a huge percentage of fatherless homes, and situational ethics taught, if any ethics are taught at all. No wonder our crime rate is what it is.
All I can say is anyone who want a job can have 3 if they want it, the labor shortage is so severe.
Disagree for older workers – when I apply, the computer algorithm rejects people with a longer work history or of a certain age. I have tested this with several job openings (retail and the local university) by putting my true info in one application, then a second application where I omit much of my history and don’t put dates about my degree, etc. The “old” me gets rejected every time. The “younger” me gets an invite for an interview. Not making this up!
If anything, private employers, especially small businesses, discriminate against young workers.
Temp agency upstairs says the same thing- younger workers tend to be more unreliable.
Can’t vouch for large corporate employers. Wouldn’t want to work for one anyway.
You might not find the job you truly want but you can find SOME job- Most employers I know are still screaming for more employees.
Totally agree, Henrius. The computer algorithms should be fixed – because maybe the person hiring never sees the applicant if they were automatically rejected!!
Your answer reveals a lot about how you think. The litmus test you fall back on to back up your theory is typical “what/how” thinking. You are not considering the “why” of the matter. Many “what/how” thinkers spend their lives frustrated because the world refuses to react the way a “what/how” thinker views it.
Don’t you ever wonder WHY people do what they do? Or do you always rely on your gut instincts for the answer to that question?
Hear the same thing from Delta Airlines mechanics all the time. They have a buddy that is a dynamite mechanic, and want him hired at Delta. No human pre-interviews him. He goes straight into the computers, and many times is not hired.
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What you write reveals what us typical of collectivists- they don’t understand human nature.
So you doubt that a bank robber would have no moral problems with stealing. Really???
The difference between humans and animals is the higher brain in humans- if properly programmed- can control instincts and impulses. This is the reason for moral instruction. What man hasn’t seen bikini beauties at the beach they would like to jump on? Yet the morals most men are instilled with keeps them from raping one, if he caught her off guard in a secluded area.
Because of secularization and probably welfare breeding, many humans in the US have devolved into quasi-animals that act on impulse and instinct.
Social workers I meet talk about the origin of anti-social behavior quite a bit. Kids never see a father, much less are instructed by one. They never see a parent set an alarm clock, press their clothes, and go to work. What many see are depraved, self-centered lives.
An inner city teacher told me some students asked her how she made a living since she was not on welfare. Incredibly, the concept of getting paid for doing actual work on a regular basis was completely alien to them.
You get what you pay for. We have paid for the production of worthless human beings with no work ethic for some time. As I stated in my “Half Century Of Maxims” years ago, the most effective way of destroying a human soul is to give a person money on a regular basis for doing nothing whatsoever.
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The funniest conclusion I hear is “poverty causes crime.”
Any statistician knows correlation does not prove causation.
It is probably as true that a criminal record makes employment more difficult.
But more likely, the same things cause both poverty AND crime- character flaws.
And to LavaRock, who spoke of poverty in Appalachia- sometimes one has to move where the jobs are, as difficult as that is.
I wrote a lengthly response (sometimes the caffeine kicks in) but decided to delete it.
Briefly then, 2 decades ago I read a blog of a guy in Honolulu who essentually decided to become homeless and documented it. It was interesting to see his view of how fellow homeless people acted and lived. He talked about him receiving ‘crazy money’. Essentually through goventment funding, he recived money each month. The woman issuing the approval let on that if he ‘heard voices’ he would get more money. So all of a sudden he remembed, “yes, I hear voices…”.
You may think this is odd and wrong. I agree. When I moved out here and got a job which was later stopped, I applied for and received un-employment. It was extended, but my unique skills were not needed out here. When I told the un-employment person I would stop receiving benefits and just work on my farm, I was told “but you have been approved for more months of payments”. I said I was fine, but was told “But you still have unused money in your account…” trying to encourage me to keep geting the money. I thought that maybe the person was paid based upon how much they paid out. Who knows!
The blog shows that not all homeless need be and not all crazy homeless are crazy. However, I agree that this is one persons story. For others, their mileage may differ.
A study on his blog is in this PDF. https://tinyurl.com/yep7vmt3
The actual blog is archived on the Wayback Machine. http://www.lava.net/~panther/cdindex.html
So you are implying that people game Federal handouts ??? That is shocking !!! 
You should read up on how much fraud there was from the PPP loans when the government egregiously shut down the economy.
You get more of what you subsidize, and that includes lethargy.
Heh, welcome to my world