The Poor Get Poorer: 3 Character Traits That Undermine Prosperity

Gluttonous, slothful, irresponsible and entitled: Today’s “poor” are the “rich” Jesus warned us about.

Byย Kathy Shaidle – PJ Media ย . . . the way many Westerners live keeps them โ€œpoor.โ€

Bill O’Reilly Interviews Adam Carolla (“Welfare Nation”)

As Thomas Sowell and many others like to point out, our โ€œpoorโ€ enjoy luxuries the Sun King could only dream of: cell phones (or three), cars (or two), PlayStations, and big screen TVs. You might have noticed that todayโ€™s โ€œpoorโ€ arenโ€™t exactly the humble, wholesome, good-hearted types Charles Dickens championed, either. (Back when โ€œlivingโ€ conditions in Victorian London were unspeakably appalling, Jack the Ripper was practically doing those women a favorโ€ฆ) Instead, todayโ€™s poor are often petulant, entitled, irresponsible, and ungrateful, caught up in a culture of crime and cheap thrills. Jesus ordered us to love the poor because He understood how hard it was to do, even 2000 years ago. But in 2012, Iโ€™d take that further: our โ€œpoorโ€ have become the โ€œrichโ€ Jesus warned us about. I know because thatโ€™s where I come from.

I grew up below the so-called โ€œpoverty line,โ€ a fact which always amused my (single) mother and me- every year when the new โ€œpoverty lineโ€ stat was announced on the news. The figure was always about the same as her annual salary. Yet somehow we had nice clothes and furniture and enough to eat. Why? Well, my mother might have been a high school dropout, but she was a workhorse who went to a hotel job she hated every morning at 5 a.m. and wasnโ€™t a boozer or a crackhead who spent her off hours in nightclubs picking up and bringing home strange dudes. In other words, my mother didnโ€™t have a lot going for her but she made the very most of what she had, in a determined and almost ostentatious manner. I noticed. I had a few friends who were the โ€œproduct of broken homes.โ€ From what I can make out, Iโ€™m the only one whoโ€™s amounted to anything. Because, I believe, I was the only one whose mother worked (for a pittance admittedly) while the rest were on welfare. Which brings us toโ€ฆ

Money Earned in a Year
Sense of Entitlement

In todayโ€™s (North) America, there is little financial incentive to better oneself anyway, thanks to โ€œentitlementsโ€ that are (involuntarily) paid for by harder-working, more responsible citizens. Behold: according to the graph above, a โ€œa one-parent family of three making $14,500 a year (minimum wage) has more disposable income than a family making $60,000 a year.โ€ Part of the reason America is so divided is that even when we use simple, commonplace words, those words have very different meanings, depending upon who is using them. When rich people talk about โ€œtaxes,โ€ theyโ€™re adding up all the money theyโ€™ve honestly earned and are now forced to pay to the state. But when โ€œpoorโ€ people talk about โ€œtaxes,โ€ theyโ€™re making a list of all the new crap theyโ€™re going to buy when they get their refund check. According to one source, โ€œ30 percent of tax unitsโ€ โ€” that is, households and individuals โ€” โ€œactually made money off the income tax system for the 2009 tax year.โ€

Poor Impulse Control

Americans have been subject to floods, hurricane, and earthquakes since the pilgrims landed. Their ability to recover from natural disasters is the stuff of legend. Shortly before Katrina struck, I knew that situation would be different. I suspected, correctly, that the populace in one particular locale on Katrinaโ€™s path would be profoundly devastated and, worse, unable to rise to the occasion in the same fashion as their fellow Americans. Why? Because New Orleans is located below sea level โ€” and its official motto is โ€œLet the Good Times Roll.โ€ Individuals who voluntary reside in a flood zone and whose only โ€œindustryโ€ is partying are ill-prepared for disaster. And โ€” humiliated when their ineptitude and learned helplessness is exposed to the world โ€” they will lash out at both those who fail to help them, and those who try. Universally: a refusal to plan ahead makes people poor and keeps them that way. (Semi-universally: In metropolitan locales around the continent, the day the welfare checks come in is referred to by local recipients as โ€œMardi Grasโ€โ€ฆ) Poor people typically spend what money they have on lots of cheap, disposable junk on a whim, instead of saving up for one good thing. Theyโ€™ll tell you they โ€œhave toโ€ give their kids powdered milk, but thatโ€™s only because theyโ€™ve already spent all their (I mean, taxpayersโ€™) money on booze, drugs, cigarettes, lottery tickets, manicures, hair weaves, bingo cards, and tacky club clothes. We hear that poor people are caught up in the trap of money-sucking โ€œpayday loansโ€ and other dubious rackets because they donโ€™t have bank accounts. But: why DONโ€™T you have a bank account? Like I said: I grew up below the poverty line but have had the same account with the same bank since I was 8 years old, because my mother (who, once again, was NOT a genius) took me downtown and signed me up for one. Poor people need to plan their lives a little better.

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