How not to be poor
 

May 11, 2005
How Not To Be Poor
By: Walter Williams

Ministers Louis Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Washington, D.C.'s Mayor Anthony Williams and others recently met to discuss plans to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the October 1995 Million Man March. Whilst reading about the plans, I thought of an excellent topic for the event: how not to be poor.

Avoiding long-term poverty is not rocket science. First, graduate from high school. Second, get married before you have children, and stay married. Third, work at any kind of job, even one that starts out paying the minimum wage. And, finally, avoid engaging in criminal behavior. If you graduate from high school today with a B or C average, in most places in our country there's a low-cost or financially assisted post-high-school education program available to increase your skills.

Most jobs start with wages higher than the minimum wage, which is currently $5.15. A man and his wife, even earning the minimum wage, would earn $21,000 annually. According to the Bureau of Census, in 2003, the poverty threshold for one person was $9,393, for a two-person household it was $12,015, and for a family of four it was $18,810. Taking a minimum-wage job is no great shakes, but it produces an income higher than the Bureau of Census' poverty threshold. Plus, having a job in the first place increases one's prospects for a better job.

The Children's Defense Fund and civil rights organizations frequently whine about the number of black children living in poverty. In 1999, the Bureau of the Census reported that 33.1 percent of black children lived in poverty compared with 13.5 percent of white children. It turns out that race per se has little to do with the difference. Instead, it's welfare and single parenthood. When black children are compared to white children living in identical circumstances, mainly in a two-parent household, both children will have the same probability of being poor.

How much does racial discrimination explain? So far as black poverty is concerned, I'd say little or nothing, which is not to say that every vestige of racial discrimination has been eliminated. But let's pose a few questions. Is it racial discrimination that stops black students from studying and completing high school? Is it racial discrimination that's responsible for the 68 percent illegitimacy rate among blacks?

The 1999 Bureau of Census report might raise another racial discrimination question. Among black households that included a married couple, over 50 percent were middle class earning above $50,000, and 26 percent earned more than $75,000. How in the world did these black families manage not to be poor? Did America's racists cut them some slack?

The civil rights struggle is over, and it has been won. At one time, black Americans did not have the same constitutional protections as whites. Now, we do, because the civil rights struggle is over and won is not the same as saying that there are not major problems for a large segment of the black community. What it does say is that they're not civil rights problems, and to act as if they are leads to a serious misallocation of resources.

Rotten education is a severe handicap to upward mobility, but is it a civil rights problem? Let's look at it. Washington, D.C. public schools, as well as many other big city schools, are little more than educational cesspools. Per student spending in Washington, D.C., is just about the highest in the nation. D.C.'s mayors have been black, and so have a large percentage of the city council, school principals, teachers and superintendents. Suggesting that racial discrimination plays any part in Washington, D.C.'s educational calamity is near madness and diverts attention away from possible solutions.

Bill Cosby had the courage to speak out against individual irresponsibility. Surely those who profess to have the best interests of blacks at heart should be able to summon the courage to do so as well.

WORK! You mean, like a job and stuff!? What the hell would I do that for, when I could just have five or six kids with different guys to up my welfare check, fake a back injury to get disability, and get a cheap rate on low income housing to keep the bills down. Then, maybe if I want to go buy something nice, I just won't pay the gas company for the winter, since I have all these kids they can't shut me off you know. Why would I WORK, when the government will pay me to stay at home?:rolleyes:

To that paper I say amen, it's not only a black problem though, it's a combination of worthless people of all races, and a government that enjoys spending our tax dollars on supporting the laziness of others. I didn't grow up rich, my parents maybe make 40k a year together, yet I am still going to college through loans and grants. My dad has had two back surgeries, and some nights has to sleep on the floor to help deal with the pain, yet he has always worked 40 hours a week, even when full disability was OFFERED to him. Why is it our responsibility to support these people? When a woman has four children, with four different men, why is it our responsibility to step in and support them? Is it our fault? I could never be president because of my views on welfare and disability, the Jesse Jacksons of the world would be all over me. I just used to do service work in a mobile home park, and saw all of the disability cases, and not one of them couldn't have had a job. Which is a greater injustice to these people, not supporting them and making them fend for themselves, or making them a slave to a monthly check for the rest of their lives?

Amen!

wow - stereotyping at its finest - of course there is no such thing as racism anymore. Is there?

A little background on the author, Walter Williams:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1115819093.jpg

WOW, a page right out of Tinfoil Times.

How about a little backround on the source for that profile.

Tell me more about this George Mason University Mafia!

Uhhhhhh, Walter E. Williams is Black...

{need a shaking-head-in-disbelief-of-ignorance smiley}

That's still racism...because he doesn't espouse the official party line.

i think what you need is a shaking-head-in-disbelief-of-ignorance-but-not-suprised-considering-the-source smiley

Better yet, Slacker said it best in response to our friend the Cat. And I give him proper citations.

"I've never before encountered someone so eager to declare to the world "Hi! I'm staggeringly ignorant of what I'm about to decry and I want everyone to know it!""

'Overpaid Slacker 02-23-2005'

I don't know about you guys but it seems to me we should be outraged over the use of our money to subsidize childbirth. I get a lot of flake from the military and other social groups over this but having children and making it my financial responsibility is absolutely absurd. This has got to be a ticking time bomb.

It comes down to whether or not you are going to take responsability for your own life and actions. Period.
Without going into too much detail my WIFE (of 15 years) and I are raising our severly handicapped son (Quadrapaligic non verbal) at home, in a family enviroment, with his younger brother because we are responsible for bringing him into this world and therefore responsible for raising him. Not the goverment, not some agency,us, his parents.
This woe everything is not my fault, I'm not responsible for the abject failure my life has become and therefore it is everyone elses responsibility to provide for me society we have become makes me ill for the lessons we are teaching our children.
Get an education/trade, get a job and contribute to you own growth thereby contributing to society instead of taking from it.
When my son was born and everyone was telling us to institutionalize him my Grandfather asked me one simple question. He is your son, you brought him into the world, are you going to raise him or let some strangers? After all you are the one responsible for him being here.
My son fights hard every day to gain more control over his head muscles so that one day he may get a job doing data entry or someting with computers. Sure we have down times but he doesn't sit around complaining about his lot in life all the time,expecting other people to make it better for him.
People don't like to look at themselves in the mirror anymore.
Just my two cents
Steve

On a thread focusing on what is wrong in our society, it's good to have a reminder that there is a lot to be proud of as well. Steve, you're doing it right, and both you and your son will get your reward in the end.

Talk about quotable quotes! It couldn't be expressed any better!:D

You have to admit that calling Rush L. "the most famous anal cyst in America" is damn funny, though. :D

I like my propaganda straight-up, Thank you, not disguised as journalism like the right does it. I happen to agree w/ a lot of what the guy says about personal responsibility, but to say that racism is dead in America is total BS as well. That's just some feel-good slop-oil massage for red state dittoheads. The guy that said it was Black? Yeah? So what. House negros are as old as the hills. You think that George Bush invented them? :rolleyes:

Even a broken clock is right once in awhile, though, and Fintstone actually flirts w/ coherency here.

So I suppose you're saying there's no such thing as a liberal media?

I do agree that racism is still present in our society, I realize that, despite the fact that I'm sure you would consider me a ignorant, red state bumpkin. Unfortunately, racism today is more subtle, and can go both ways, i.e. affirmative action. However, I believe that this article transcends race, it applies to worthless people the nation over, who refuse to take responsibility for their own lives.

Matt:
Your first reply was right on. I worked with the welfare population for about 7 years, and it made me mad and sick. Very seldom does it seem to help and most of the time it wastes our tax dollars & creates dependency.
I can give you an example I will always remember: A lady had 10 kids, from various fathers. Collected AFTC for the 10 kids $30K +/yr.), plus welfare for herself. Tax payers paid for medicare, subsidized rent, food stamps, etc. etc. As the kids turned 18, she lost the monthly income from them. When her last kid turned 18, she was in her 50's, had a 4th grade reading level, no job skills or training, never worked (no pay into S.S.) so no work experience, and was only going to get cash aid & benefits for herself. Later welfare reform limited benefits to a total of 5 years, so when she used that up, she would have nothing in her early 60's. Of course I'm sure one of her kids would take her in.

I like my propaganda straight-up, Thank you, not disguised as journalism like the right does it.

that'd be funny if it weren't so dillusional. You're saying that ABC/NBC/CBS/MSNBC/CNN don't disguise their propaganda as news?

No, that's not what "I'm saying". Or said. Learn to spell and read before responding next time. :cool:

House negro = black person who's not a liberal democrat? That's kind of a narrow outlook, isn't it?

No, that's incorrect. Another one that needs to stay after school I guess. :rolleyes:

BTW, when I don't respond for the next 12 hours, it doesn't mean that you "got me", meatheads. It means that I have to go work for my gasoline money and won't be near a computer. Have at it! :cool:

Hmm, I get detention for pointing out your BS. You must be one of those tenured teachers. :p

Edit: I apologize for rising to the bait, but you really shouldn't use borderline-racist terms like that. It gains nothing when critics resort to name-calling and labeling. If the author is right, he's right no matter how you try to pigeonhole him.

RallyJon, your killing me! I can't wait to hear the response!

Why is it that all of our arrogantly liberal OT people are from California? The east coast liberals on here seem much more reasonable. Does the lack of bad weather to complain about bring on a need to find something else to be bitter about? Hell, move to Kansas, you'll find plenty of new stuff to be pissed about, like the severe weather outbreak they're predicting for today.

A while back I read a great article by a black sociologist, the point being the indoctrination of black Americans into a welfare society. His point was that by giving giving money, food, etc to blacks, and other Americans as well, that it was actually doing more harm than leaving them to fend for themselves. That a total lack of personal responsibility also leads to more crime, children out of wedlock, and a general lack of motivation to do anything in life. Pretty much everything that is wrong with our inner cities. Very convincing, for those that need convincing, I wish I could remember the particulars as far as the author goes.

During my time working in a mobile home park, I saw many people on disability, welfare, or some combination of various government funded laziness. My favorite was the lady with the "bad back" that worked around the park for cash, doing home repairs and painting. I once saw her move a deck by crawling under it and bowing her back upwards to lift it off of the ground, then crawling with it on her back. Another example, the guy with the "bad back" (see a trend?) that drag raced on the weekend, he also enjoyed water skiing. My father, the one that has had two back surgeries and still works 40hrs a week, had to sell their boat immediately after his injury, he couldn't even stand to ride in it due to the bouncing over the waves.

Basically what it comes down to is, why should I support you? You screwed somebody, weren't smart enough to use protection, and now don't want to work, like thousands of single mothers do. I DON'T CARE. Call me callous, but it's not my mess, I have my own problems, I deal with them. I think government aid is justified in cases such as Steve and his son, who has a physical handicap, and I commend him for taking responsibility, and teaching his son to do the same. It's funny, everyone that I have ever met that has been injured enough that they have been OFFERED disability has turned it down, because they're too proud to take a handout, but they have court hearings in Topeka where people try to convince a judge why they should be given a handout.:rolleyes:

As long as immigrants, illegal or not, can make a better life for themselves, I have little sympathy for those unwilling to achieve.

Spot on!!

My sis-in-law had to go for temporary aid after a really messy divorce. She already worked one job in bookeeping at the local power plant and it payed decent but with 2 kids she felt she needed and was entitled to tap into the system for a short while as she got on her feet.

She was dicked aound so much trying to qualify for aid. She finally got it and then was discusted to see the people that "play the welfare game" when she would have to go into the office. They are driving new Mercedes Benzes, BMW's and Lexus (this was quite a while ago I am sure its Escalades with 24's now) they prance their little litter of kids into the office to get their money. She was off the aid in 6 months once she adjusted to being a single mom. Now a few years later is moving into a new home with her 2nd husband who is a great guy.

When we had our second child a 2 years ago I had to pay for it out of my pocket. 14K to have a kid. I could not / can not find health insurance to cover pregnancy. At the same time my receptionist got drunk at a kegger gave out blow jobs to who ever wanted them and got knocked up from some guy she didn't know. The state paid for her childbirth.

I suggested to my wife we divorce I make it appear I have moved out and we ge tthe state to pay for it. She wouldnt go for it.

I worked with a guy in West Palm Beach who had 5 kids with 5 women. The last one had an intestinal problem and was in and out of surgery for his first 5 months. All on the tax payers tab. He seemd to take pride and spreading his seman around town and having 5 boys. He was overhead saying he wanted 10 kids. Why the hell not he wasn't paying for them. He was a baby machine on the states dime.

Yup, rewarding the idiots is our specialty.

I totally agree. Despite what your views are on illegal aliens, we have a pretty big Mexican population here in Kansas, and they are the hardest working people I have ever came into contact with. This is typically for lower pay (cash for the illegals), and it's the worst jobs, but they do it with a smile.

Yeah racism is alive and well; living at PP OT

That has to be one of the most obscenely offensive things I've ever read on this BBS, and saying "just kidding" with the smiley after doesn't make it any less so.

I can't believe some are falling for the table scraps. The heart of the problem is HUD which is nothing but a welfare program for the wealthy.

As far as Steve and his son are concerned, I agree, we owe it to help those that help themselves.

It's very easy to say, "unwed mothers who sit at home waiting for welfare checks are the problem" because it's true. I don't think anyone can really argue that they're not a drain on society. More to the point, it's a self-feeding loop because the children grow up not knowing how to pull themselves out. Do you think they read the papers (even the liberal media that sympathizes so much)? Of course not.

It's much harder to talk about solutions. "Take personal responsibility" as advice is about on par with the "find another planet" if we just learned that an asteroid was heading toward this one. We (and they) just don't know how to do it.

How about this then: we require that real sex ed be taught in schools - condoms, birth control, the works. Not of this 'abstinence-only' BS. Oh wait, who's holding that up? It's not that party that sits on the left of the aisle. How about requiring depo-provera or some other foolproof birth control device for all girls receiving welfare benefits starting when the turn 10 until they turn 18. Don't think that one would get past the theocrats in office either. I wouldn't mind BC used for certain women over 18 either, but I don't think anyone in power would like this one.

Poverty is a big problem. And it's not news that it affects black people more than white people. But we need to talk about solutions, not just about who's causing the problems if we actually want to fix things.

Interesting, wludavid. You think the welfare problem is the result of poor sex ed? and you think the solution is forced birth control? I don't think that "theocrats" are the only ones that would question your strategy.

Sell it and they will buy?
http://www.economicthinking.org/vide...iamsDVD400.jpg

Sex ed is one thing, but how about some high school courses from the newly formed "How to function as an adult in the real world" department?

My wife used to be a consultant and every once in a while they'd bring in a presenter who would talk to them about how to dress professionally, not to wear too much jewelry, etc. Nobody teaches this stuff to the underclass--and they need it the most!

95% of people will use basic accounting skills over their lifetime. 5% will use calculus. Which one do they teach in high school?

How about proposal writing? Or business writing in general? Apparently it's more important to learn to write poetry than to write a sales proposal, a business plan or a coherent job application.

RallyJon, you're nailing the "training vs education" argument quite nicely. Having paid way too much for a liberal arts education, you'll probably guess which side I come down on. :)

It would be interesting to see those courses offered in conjunction with poetry and calculus, though.

so ....this means there is no such thing as racism anymore.....please elaborate

Let's give Mr. Williams a chance to stand in front of a million black men and read that article loudly.

I have always heard that many of the high school curriculums overseas are more trade oriented, they prepare you for life, as compared with the US system that somewhat prepares you for college. To be quite frank, though some of the electives that I have taken in college are interesting, they will in no way contribute to my future career as an engineer. I would love to see a better focus on career preperation, having the option in high school to better tailor your classes in the direction that you want to go in life. If you don't know what to do, then the current scatter-brained curriculum makes more sense.

It's a nice thought that handing out condoms at the door in high school will solve all our problems, but I just don't see it. I do believe that strong sex ed is a must, but there's always that fine line between simply educating, and saying here's a condom, just don't get pregnant. If everybody had strong morals (I include myself with everybody), and didn't have sex until marriage, we wouldn't have the problem with the welfare babies. As for that, if women didn't get more money when they have more welfare babies, there would no longer be motivation, other than purely sexual. Not saying it would end it, but even a reduction would be a plus.

Another thought, if we are going to throw away all this money, how about using some of it to promote adoption? It's a win win, the lazy person gets some sort of incentive to turn over her child, while the child gets a loving home, and a future. There would have to be limits though, otherwise welfare women would just become baby machines. I often wonder why more parents don't turn their babies over to adoption when they don't want them. That's the worst part about all of this, the kids get screwed. It's not fault that their parent/ parents are a drain on society, and essentially a waste of oxygen. A 9 month old was just hospitalized here in town for swallowing some of his parent's meth, it's so sad that anyone can have kids.....:mad:

If they were black men with jobs, he'd get a standing ovation. Otherwise, someone would probably shoot him.;)