Why do Americans hate poor people?

Tyler_JC

The heavy Socialist leaning of this website never ceases to amaze me.

How about I ask the question, "Why do Europeans feel the need to steal money from productive people in order to give free stuff to nonproductive people?"

It is not my personal responsibility to make sure that someone 1000 miles away in a Chicago ghetto has a place to sleep every night.

It might be the responsibility of the city of Chicago, but it is definitly NOT my problem.

I oppose all federal welfare schemes.

State welfare programs might be more acceptable because at least it helps the people within an specific area.

We have, or at least used to have, a strong belief in limiting the power of a federal government in favor of more local control.

To each his own, right?

My town takes care of its poor, yours should do the same.

Peak Oil will mean the end of suburban living and the middle class will either dieout or return to the cities or move to smaller farming communities.

The current problems are a result of the white flight to the suburbs. When the poor are out in the open instead of "over there", we will see more charity.

But stealing from my paycheck in order to "help" some other random person in another country (as I consider Chicago to be) is wasteful, unconstitutional, and immoral.
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Vexed · Heavy Crude Joined: Aug 13, 2004 Posts: 460

jato

Trab

Tyler's rant has some merit, but it falls short, I think. Socialist or capitalist... it doesn't really matter. The main difference is who is benefitting from the cash that the state takes from the people. It's wealth redistribution either way. I feel no better about that portion of my tax money that goes to corporate subsidies versus that which goes to welfare.

The whole concept of a 'safety net' like welfare is quite modern, and is probably only valid in a scenarios where there is both excess energy/capacity to allow people to survive without working, and a culture where a large number of people aren't forced to provide for themselves (i.e. subsistence farming, etc.).

In a low-energy future, one would contribute to the common good or be forced out of the community. There were no welfare queens in the middle ages. Smile

LadyRuby

gt1370a · Heavy Crude Joined: Apr 02, 2005 Posts: 359

I'll tell you why Americans hate poor people. This is the land of opportunity. You have to be unimaginably goddam lazy and stupid not to be able to make a comfortable living here. And then people who are actually that lazy and stupid expect the goverment (funded by the rest of us) to bail them out every time they Fark up. "I didn't study in high school, raise the minimum wage so I can pay my cable bill!" "I was too stupid to evacuate the Keys even after I saw what happened in New Orleans, give me food and shelter!" I resent that. I really resent the lack of personal responsibility and the sense of entitlement that people feel. Maybe hate is too strong a word. But I resent it, and I fear the implications that that has when resources become scarce and times get tough.

By the way, the "average" person living below the poverty line in this country still has: a vehicle, a residence, cable TV, and air conditioning. I was poor enough in college that I wore a pair of shoes that my mexican neighbor threw away because they were better than the ones I had, although I never starved or anything. So, it's not like I'm exactly Barbara Bush or something, I know what it's like not to have any money. But it's acceptable to be poor if you're a student, nobody looks down on them.

thuja

we got some poor people haters out there- put out your fist and say yeah! I got mine!

nuhax · Tar Sands Joined: Jun 18, 2005 Posts: 62

Vexed · Heavy Crude Joined: Aug 13, 2004 Posts: 460

Why Americans Hate Welfare
By Robert C. Lieberman

A curious paradox defines the politics of welfare in the United States. On the one hand, we are an extraordinarily generous and forgiving people. In 1998 Americans donated more than $170 billion to charity, and we have proven open to giving just about anyone (even, say, a philandering president) a second chance. Americans are willing, even enthusiastic, supporters of vast social programs aimed at protecting individuals from what Franklin Roosevelt called "the hazards and vicissitudes of life."

On the other hand, Americans are more likely to be poor than citizens of other industrial countries, and American government does less than other advanced nations to shield its citizens from poverty. If we're so generous, just why do Americans hate welfare?

This puzzle is at the heart of Martin Gilens's compelling book, and his answer can be summed up in a word: race. Americans dislike the programs most commonly called "welfare"-- especially Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and its successor, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)--not because they are too individualistic to believe in public social provision or too self-interested to pay for it, but because they associate these programs with African Americans. Gilens, a Yale political scientist, traces this connection in the public mind to the mid- to late 1960s, when urban violence drew the spotlight of the national media to ghetto poverty...

Why Americans Hate the Welfare System

Why I Don't Hate Why Americans Hate Welfare

LadyRuby

Vexed · Heavy Crude Joined: Aug 13, 2004 Posts: 460

THE WORKING POOR
By Tim Jones

The food line begins to form during the sunrise chill, more than two hours before the metal gates to the Care United Methodist Outreach pantry open.

Hundreds of people like Theresa Ware arrive early because they fear the boxes of food stacked in neat rows will be gone by the time they push their rusty grocery carts to the head of the hours-long line. Ware keeps an eye on her watch because she can't afford to be late for work, not even if the reason is to pick up food.

"This is a have-to case for us. It's humiliating," said Ware, 49, who makes $7.50 an hour working the afternoon shift at a nursing home. This recent visit was one of two food pantry stops she and her unemployed husband, Rocky, make every month.

"We shouldn't have to do this," she said.

Theresa and Rocky Ware toil in the ranks of the working poor, a growing category of millions of Americans who play by the rules of the working world and still can't make ends meet.

Lazy and Stupid People

gt1370a · Heavy Crude Joined: Apr 02, 2005 Posts: 359

Vexed · Heavy Crude Joined: Aug 13, 2004 Posts: 460

gt1370a · Heavy Crude Joined: Apr 02, 2005 Posts: 359

rogerhb

I want to thank everyone who has contributed to this thread. In answer to the "who the hell are you to ask such a question, you're not from here" then answer may be perhaps it required an outsider to ask the question.

This is by no means a scientific summary, but from the responses, we hate "the idea of being poor" and the people who are poor are the ones who represent that idea. I won't go into arguments about "poor people choose to be poor" etc.

I'll admit I might have been cheeky in order to get some replies, but there is solid value in some of the ideas here. I, for one, think we're all about to get a lot poorer, so coming to terms with a lower standard of living is all part of the transition.

We've made a big move down here to a smaller, poorer town, and get very strange looks from my peers in the city when I describe what we have done. However I do see a light suddenly turn on in their heads when I say we've reduced our mortgage by a factor of 7.

Perhaps we're all poor until we're debt free.
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"Complex problems have simple, easy to understand, wrong answers." - Henry Louis Mencken