How not to be poor

[fintstone]

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.

[onewhippedpuppy]

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?

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?

[Tim Hancock]

Amen!

[creaturecat]

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

[creaturecat]

A little background on the author, Walter Williams:

[928ram]

WOW, a page right out of Tinfoil Times.

[cmccuist]

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

[VaSteve]

Tell me more about this George Mason University Mafia!

[lendaddy]

Originally posted by creaturecat
wow - stereotyping at its finest - of course there is no xuch thing as racism anymore. Is there?

Uhhhhhh, Walter E. Williams is Black...

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

[legion]

Originally posted by lendaddy
Uhhhhhh, Walter E. Williams is Black...

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

[Burnin' oil]

Originally posted by lendaddy

{need a shaking-head-in-disbelief-of-ignorance smiley} [/B]

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

[lendaddy]

Originally posted by Burnin' oil
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'

[CRH911S]

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.

[Cdnone1]

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

[onewhippedpuppy]

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.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally posted by lendaddy
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'

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

[speeder]

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

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?

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

[onewhippedpuppy]

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.

[Evans, Marv]

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.

[bryanthompson]

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?