Even those with "lack of will" have children. Are those children responsible for the poverty into which they were born? Hell no. But, unless targeted educational opportunities are provided, they will likely never learn that they can rise above the plight of poverty. I'm not talking about the public schools alone. Besides, it's no secret that public schools in inner cities and other poor areas are not equitable with schools in more affluent areas. Why? I suspect a whole bunch of reasons, including a poverty mindset, lack of good teachers in those areas, poor and dilapidated facilities, just to name a few.
As for the other reasons, a study was recently done that shows that half of all bankrupsies are filed because of the dire straits that a medical catastrophe has cost a family. But, the Congress could give a rat's ass. They pass legislation that does nothing to protect people from medical catastrophes, and instead come up with a bankrupsy legislation bill that only serves to protect the banks, who have made their money off the insane interest rates accumulated from people who maybe missed a payment or two. It's obscene.
Of course, this non-living wage thing is quite the controversy lately. The dubya assholes give most of the technical clean-up and repair contracts to their friends, ie Halliburton and Bechtel, withot bid requirements, I might add. The contracts are worth billions of dollars. Dubya, in all his insane glory, has passed a directive that the contractors no longer are bound by Davis-Bacon acts, thereby releasing them from paying prevailing wages, otherwise federally required in federal contracts. But, do you think that Halliburton, et al will get less money to undertake the contracts? Hell no. They just pay the workers less than a living wage, and of course they get to pocket the difference. What a corporate give-away that was. Let the workers starve.
And of course, there are natural disasters. Katrina exposed our poverty dirty secret to the world. But, people will always be poor. Now, they are not just poor, they are destitute. No jobs. No homes. No cars. No place to go, except for the fortunate few who managed to be taken in by some exceptionally giving soul. These people are now destitute, regardless whether the government gives em a $2K credit card. We all know that $2K is chump change in this society. It will not buy a house. It may provide a few months of rent. It will not provide anything lasting. Do some of them abuse their money? Of course. But so freakin' what? Most, I'm sure do not. They are just trying to figure out how to feed their families.
Col, most people don't choose to be poor. They are stuck with the situation. It sucks, and they get caught in the vicious cycle of poverty. And poverty begets poverty.
It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. Who gets to go where? Who gets the flooded New Orleans lands? Who gets the contracts to rebuild? What will be rebuilt? How will it all get paid for?
