Why do you think people are poor?

LOW WAGES. One third of the jobs in our economy are classified as “low-skill, low

wage,” and often do not have benefits. Most of these jobs are in the fast-growing retail

and service sectors. The “working poor” comprise about half of all adults living in

poverty.

SINGLE-PARENTING. Over half of poor families are headed by a single woman. A single

mother with children is more likely to be poor than any other age group, race group, or

family type. A single-parent family has only one adult earner, and her work effort is often

constrained by parenting responsibilities and low-paying job skills.

DISCRIMINATION. Research shows that hiring discrimination is common, seriously limiting

the wages and employment options of minority workers. The poverty rate for people of

color is three times the rate for whites, and minorities are at high risk for long-term

poverty. One in six African Americans can expect to spend ten years or more in poverty

compared to one in fifty white Americans.

INADEQUATE EDUCATION AND SKILL-LEVEL. Over a lifetime, a high school dropout

will earn $200,000 less than a high school graduate and is three times more likely to be

unemployed or leave the work force permanently. The increasing globalization of the U.S.

economy means that more low-skill jobs are leaving the country. At the same time, new

technologies in the workplace have reduced the demand for less-skilled workers. When

adjusted for inflation, wage levels for less-skilled workers have declined steadily over

the past 20 years.

ISOLATION FROM JOBS. Jobs are increasingly located in suburban areas, and

disadvantaged urban or rural job-seekers may not find out about available jobs or have

transportation to worksites.

LACK OF “SOFT SKILLS.” Some of the disadvantaged have learned a set of “streetwise”

survival skills instead of the “soft skills” needed in the workplace. Research shows that

job experience is important to learning these non-technical skills – getting along with

supervisors, coworkers, and customers; regularly showing up for work and getting there

on time; following the rules; and having a good attitude and being productive.

POOR HEALTH, MENTAL ILLNESS, SUBSTANCE ABUSE, and DOMESTIC VIOLENCE.

Research is unclear on the magnitude of these problems among the poor, but studies of

welfare recipients have shown that 10-20% have medical problems that limit their ability

to work. It is also estimated that at least one third of the nation’s 600,000 homeless

individuals have schizophrenia or manic-depressive illness. A relationship between

substance abuse and poverty has been recognized for a long time. Recent studies show

that 20-30% of current welfare recipients are victims of domestic abuse.

There is no single cause of poverty and there are no simple solutions.

There are about a hundred reasons. I'll just list a few.

1. Lack of education of the parents, so that there is no family push to be educated. They also aren't educated on birth control.

2. Lack of education of K-12. The current American educational system is broken and must be fixed or we'll continue to have the enormous illiteracy rates we do now.

3. An environment that does not show them any alternatives to their current lifestyle. TV is just a fantasy that they don't believe applies to them. They have no role models who get an education and go on to be successes. The role models they do have show them that they can only be successful if they drop out of school and start living on the wrong side of the law.

4. A welfare system that is designed to keep them on welfare, not get them off.

5. Lack of small business loans that would help them start a business.

But you have to realize that the real reason they are poor is that they have less money than other groups. There are a whole lot of poor people out there who work full-time or more than one job. They simply get paid so little that they still fall below the poverty line.

As Jesus said, "The poor you have always with you." That wasn't a statement of encouragement to give to the poor as much as it was an acknowledgment that in any society there would always be people who had less than others. He did not judge people for their poverty and neither should we.

I can see that I am one lone Conservative in a post full of liberals, but what the hell, I will take a shot.

I feel for the sick, and the disabled, the people that are UNABLE to work. I truly do, and I volunteer my time and my own hard earned money to help those in need. I do my part. I do not however have much sympathy for any person that is poor or who was born into poverty once they reach the age of reason.

If you don't like being poor, you can do something about it. Not too long ago, I was , working two crappy jobs while going to school. I was barely making ends meet, but knew that if I worked hard, I would get ahead and would no longer have to struggle. It was harder than hell, but I did it, taking advantage of the student loans and other aid out there. Once I graduated and started my career, I immediately started working toward my Master's degree, and had the hospital I work for pay the entire bill because I was now an asset to them through my own hard work. I proved myself worthy of the opportunity.

I bank my money. I don't charge up debt. I have six months salary banked at all times. I own my home outright, and have a small mortgage on a vacation home, mainly for tax purposes. I am living proof that through hard work and discipline, you do NOT have to be poor. People need to rely on themselves instead of waiting for someone to help them. At the end of the day, the only person you can count on is yourself.

Because there's no bar on exactly what poor is. I've been well below the poverty line several times in my life and have still lived comfortably. I've also had friends who made several times what I do and couldn't pay their bills or feed their families.

I was born into it too. One of my earliest memories was being flooded out of a roach-infested building because my parents didn't pay their landlord for a few months. I dropped out to work and am the proud owner of a G.E.D., and am putting myself through college.

Ask ten different people and you'll get ten different answers. My answer is that people expect too much out of life, and spend more on comfort and lifestyle and things that they "have" to have than they do on actually increasing their ability to earn money and the things they need to both survive and make a difference in the world around them.

Savings, education, that kind of thing pays off later, if there even is a later. Nintendo pays off now. And everyone needs a house, car, etc.

That's not saying it's always the poor person's fault. A lot of people are born into families where their parents and grandparents made a lot of those mistakes, and they never had the opportunity to make their own mistakes. And some families honestly never have enough to make any mistakes to begin with, they were just screwed by chance and fate or moved here because they thought they'd have a better life. But as to where the laziness attitude comes from, remember that in WWII people weren't allowed to own much at all. Everything went to the war effort. The economy boomed afterward because owning anything at all made people feel rich, and they settled for less. But around 1948, everyone started off poor. So now you at least know why people feel the way they do.

Poor people can learn from that (I did). If you feel rich eating ramen, frozen veggies, and bologna, you're never poor, and you'll usually find you have more money that way too.

Where society is concerned, the only people doing anything about their world, are the people have time and money to care about the world around them. The reason the rich get richer, is because they're the only people playing. Everyone else just talks, marches with signs, and gets high, but never does anything resembling hard work to solve problems.

Or to put it another way, if you hate someone in office, take their job.

Interesting question. I think we should be asking why are so many Americans becoming poor, or falling below our poverty line? That is because of the banking system. The second a person slips up and is late on any type of payment, then they start the slip downhill. Fees start adding up, and soon the person can not catch up. They use one credit card to pay another. Eventually, it catches up. The debetor is harrassed at home, work and that increases their frustration and stress until eventually the person gives up and turns to drugs or alcohol. Think I'm kidding? Find someone on the streets and really talk to them. It could be that they lost their job, and missed a payment. They could have had a lengthy illness. Regardless, the banks, creditors show no compassion. They raise your interest rates, paint your credit record black and hold it over your head until you are dead. Then after you die, the government takes everything that you may have accumulated during your lifetime.

What exactly is the easy way out?

Going out a getting a job? Working in the trenches is the easy way out?

Not everybody has the opportunity to go to college?

Did your parents pay for your college? Or did they just help you fill out the loan applications or grant forms? Regardless, someone had compassion for you, and helped you get into college. For you to say that you have no compassion for those who took the "easy" way out, just shows what an inconsiderate, self-centered liberal snob you really are!!!!!!!!

undesirable all and distinct is all alike. it is the interest of a political candidate which seems in yet otherwise in distinct angles. The reservation coverage, from quite some the viewpoints develop into perfect, (pardon, i'm not one among beneficiaries). in spite of the undeniable fact that it develop into formulated and applied wrongly. Now we can see that a dalit relatives even once you've reservation reward by 3 or 4 generations is again a dalit. now the different dalit relatives it really is disadvantaged of the benifits for that a lot technology can ought to compete with the first style of dalit. it really is not justified. the substantial reason behind reservation contained in the techniques of structure makers develop right into an ethical boost and to tutor the society hostile to forged branch. My element is that if someone isn't undesirable, he should be considered non-dalit. although the opposite may not be genuine (each undesirable may not be considered as dalit). Even the son of a crorepati ought to correctly be undesirable by financial disaster, or perhaps if that's his fault, actually it is not the fault of grandson who will inherit the poverty. And to formulate and implement a reservation coverage for awful people is only next to not accessible. what's needed, is a sturdy coverage for awful those which will ascertain free practise as a lot as a particular element, a appropriate Public Distribution device, putting ahead the households having no technique of income, encouraging small scale entrepreneurship etc. the authorities ought to take powerful steps to terminate the dual practise device which makes it even harder for the undesirable scholars to compete. And if a coverage has been proved futile in very last 60 years, it is going to stay so in destiny 600 years. dedication is needed for reforms to happen. And as a very last element :- The reservation of any style will income the in contact people in effortless words in authorities jobs. and that is making a small %age of people. even extra all and distinct is engaged in agriculture and small businesses and retail shops etc. and also you won't be able to rigidity that a %age of finished shops ought to belong to Tribes and yet another to Casts and Poors. Out of 1000 people, you provides activity to 4 STs, 12 SCs, 12 OBCs and 22 Brahmins. yet what is going to happen to relax 950 in case you do not have a unmarried activity for them in any class.

Because different jobs pay different amounts of money. But if everyone was a lawyer or a doctor, we would have trash piling up because of no garbage men. Our septic tanks would be overflowing because no one would come to pump the poop. I think the only thing to do about poverty is educate the future generation so they make better choices in life, instead of doing drugs and getting knocked up. Know what's sad? The 6 richest people in the world have more money combined than the poorest 100 thousand people.

I don't think there is any single answer. Women often fall into poverty when an marriage/long term relationship breaks up. When the family is stable and you have two incomes or one income to pay the bills and one person to care for children, families can maintain a middle class lifestyle. When couples split the mother usually gets primary custody and struggles to make ends meet.

I heard a quote one time I believe someone was asking an immigrant why they wanted to come to America and they answered 'I want to live where even the poor people are fat.'

Far as helping the poor. We offer them free food, housing, education, health care, child care and most recently cell phones. If they can't make a better life while receiving all that help then I don't know what will.

Zapper: Education is free in this country for all people. Throw out another excuse.

Because we take the things the powerful have in excess and term them 'rich', those who don't must automatically be 'poor'. Classes are socially constructed, it's time to realize that.