Cause and cure for poverty?

hendrixpujols11 · #1 (**permalink**) 09-03-2008, 04:27 PM

What causes poverty? Laziness? No incentive to work? High taxes on the rich, and thus less jobs? Being born into poverty? Is it possible, or likely, for someone to be born into a poor family, but to become welathy and successful financially later in life?

What is the "cure" for poverty? Raising minimum wage? Tax breaks to the poor? Tax breaks to the rich, to create more jobs? Is welfare a temporary solution?

Rothbardian · #2 (**permalink**) 09-04-2008, 02:53 PM

Easy the cause is government and the cure is abolishing it.

justabubba · #3 (**permalink**) 09-04-2008, 02:57 PM

how many poor educated people do you know?

bet you can figure out the answer from there

Quixote's Revenge · #4 (**permalink**) 09-05-2008, 11:00 AM

Cause: Richer people

Cure: Kill them all

Oilguy · #5 (**permalink**) 09-05-2008, 11:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hendrixpujols11

What causes poverty? Laziness? No incentive to work? High taxes on the rich, and thus less jobs? Being born into poverty? Is it possible, or likely, for someone to be born into a poor family, but to become welathy and successful financially later in life?

What is the "cure" for poverty? Raising minimum wage? Tax breaks to the poor? Tax breaks to the rich, to create more jobs? Is welfare a temporary solution?

The cause is primarily attitude. >>> I am purely talking about the United States of course.

But if you have a
*Good attitude
*Good Work Ethic
*and Ambition

There is nothing you can't accomplish!
I have said it on here before and I will say it confidently again... Poverty in America is a Choice! I wasn't proven wrong before and I haven't heard any good attempts to prove me wrong since.... I don't care what you eduction level is or your race... sex... what side of the tracks you come from.... What school you went to... What state you are from... If you parents didn't hug you... whatever!! >>> If you have a Good attitude, good work ethic, and you are ambitious >> You will be successful and happy....

OG

sunnyside · #6 (**permalink**) 09-05-2008, 12:09 PM

In practice in the US it's usually due to a failure to execute ones children.

What I mean is that if you run the demographics (which we did is some similar thread way back) the largest group of people below the poverty line is single mothers.

Other groups were those who may have a dual income but just had too many dependents, those who were injured/sick/have mental issues/borderline retarded, or those who were really old and didn't have enough cash to retire above the poverty line.

There are some who are just lazy. But in America, as others have pointed out, it's pretty easy to get above the poverty level if you're single and child free. So that group was really small as a percentage of those under the poverty level. I think it was low single digets percentage wise.

JavaBlack · #7 (**permalink**) 09-05-2008, 12:20 PM

Poverty is not a disease for one thing...
But if you want the answer...

Poverty is caused by scarcity.
If you eliminate scarcity, you effectively eliminate poverty.
Good luck on that.

I think it's a more achievable goal to simply limit the miserable effects of poverty and increase the chances to escape it.

midcan5 · #8 (**permalink**) 09-05-2008, 12:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hendrixpujols11

What causes poverty? Laziness? No incentive to work? High taxes on the rich, and thus less jobs? Being born into poverty? Is it possible, or likely, for someone to be born into a poor family, but to become welathy and successful financially later in life?

What is the "cure" for poverty? Raising minimum wage? Tax breaks to the poor? Tax breaks to the rich, to create more jobs? Is welfare a temporary solution?

I know rich lazy people - that is out.
I know people who work incredibly hard but are not rich - rules that out.
I know rich people, taxes don't faze them - rule that out.
Partially, yes.
Define wealthy?
Cures are hard - work and values are keys.
Tax breaks, no, trickle down is myth.
Yes, welfare helps.

Amazon.com: The Persistence of Poverty: Why the...
Solutions are hard, Reagan began the decline of the working people with his help in the destruction of unions.

http://www.conservativenannystate.org/
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/op-eds...to-a-dead-end/

"U.S. politics took a sharp turn to the right in 1980 with the election of Ronald Reagan as president. Domestically, Reagan touted an agenda that would lead to a sharp upward redistribution of income. Internationally, Reagan explicitly rejected the "détente" framework for engaging the Soviet Union that had been accepted by the leadership of both major parties since the beginning of the Cold War. In its place, Reagan put forward a doctrine of U.S. unilateralism in which the United States basically claimed the right to do whatever it wanted, unconstrained by allies or international institutions."

ocean_314 · #9 (**permalink**) 09-05-2008, 02:27 PM

Most poverty is caused by the parents of those people who are poor. Instead of instilling their kids with a work ethic pride of work and stress the importance of education, they taught their kids to suck off the public tit. And so they do.

justabubba · #10 (**permalink**) 09-05-2008, 02:34 PM

Education is the antidote to poverty.
Finland ranks first among 129 countries in uncorrupt government (USA is #20 according to Transparency International)
Finland is #1 ranked as the world's most democratic country (USA is #15 per Freedom House)
Finland is #1 in science in the ranking of results on standardized tests administered to 15 year old students (USA is #29)
Finland is in the top 10 most competitive economies according to the World Economic Forum; finally, the USA was #1

BUT just 20 years ago, Finland was identified as the poorest country in northern europe

The Finnish President identifies the solution to his country's poverty as being "education, education and education"

Finland smartly invested in its public education system and it has become a technological powerhouse

More precisely, Finland has invested in teachers. good teachers provide a good education. Finland pays its teachers well and it now attracts the best and the brightest. teaching has become an honored profession in Finland

Quote:

When Finland's 15-year-olds recently placed No.1 in math and science on the recent Program for International Student Assessment, the news of the coup was received in Helsinki with characteristic reserve. For the Finns, whose schools are considered the best in the world, the scores stood as a redundant confirmation of the success of their policies.
But in the U.S., the frustration was palpable. Despite persistent attempts to bring equity to the wildly uneven quality of our schools, reformers have not been able to produce the intended results. That's why they've begun to look even more closely in this presidential election year at Finland for lessons that can be applied here. What they will find in the end serves as a cautionary tale for strategies that we proudly consider cutting edge.
At the heart of Finland's stellar reputation is a philosophy completely alien to America. The country of 5.3 million in an area twice the size of Missouri considers education an end in itself - not a means to an end. It's a deeply rooted value that is reflected in the Ministry of Education and in all 432 municipalities. In sharp contrast, Americans view education as a stepping stone to better-paying jobs or to impress others. The distinction explains why we are obsessed with marquee names, and how we structure, operate and fund schools.
The headlines notwithstanding, misconceptions about Finland's renown as an educational icon abound. The Finns spend a meager (compared to the U.S.) $5,000 a year per student, operate no gifted programs, have average class sizes close to 30, and don't begin schooling children until they are 7. Moreover, Finland is not the homogeneous nation of lore. While still not as diverse as the U.S., the number of immigrant students in Helsinki's comprehensive schools is exploding, with their numbers expected to constitute 23.3 percent of the city's schools by 2025. At present, about 11 percent are immigrants, compared with just 6 percent in 2002. According to the City of Helsinki Urban Facts, by 2015 there will be schools with more than half of the student body from abroad.
Not surprisingly, in a land where literacy and numeracy are considered virtues, teachers are revered. Teenagers ranked teaching at the top of their list of favorite professions in a recent survey. Far more graduates of upper schools in Finland apply for admission to teacher-training institutes than are accepted. The overwhelming majority of those who eventually enter the classroom as a teacher make it a lifelong career, even though they are paid no more than their counterparts in other European countries.
One of the major reasons for the job satisfaction that Finnish teachers report is the great freedom they enjoy in their instructional practices. As long as they adhere to the core national curriculum, teachers are granted latitude unheard of in the U.S. The scripted lesson plans that teachers here are increasingly being expected to follow would be rejected out of hand as an insult by teachers in Finland and by their powerful union, which has a growing membership of some 117,500 members.
If none of these facts are enough to raise doubts about the policies the U.S. has in place or on the drawing board, Finland's testing practices should raise a final red flag. The Finns do not administer national standardized tests during the nine years of basic education. Instead, the National Board of Education assesses learning on the basis of a sample representing about 10 percent of a stipulated age group. Individual school results are strictly confidential, and schools are neither ranked nor compared. The data collected are available only to the schools in question and to the National Board of Education, which use them to help improve instruction. The naming and shaming that No Child Left Behind relies on in its obsession with quantification would be unthinkable.
What ultimately emerges from studying Finland is the realization that the reform movement in America is based on a business model fundamentally at odds with the education model used by a country with the world's finest schools. While it's always risky to attempt to apply findings from one country to another, particularly when the two are so different, it's a mistake to turn our backs on Finland's approach.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/02/27/7330/

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