Live data from Hacker News

Stop Blaming America’s Poor for Their Poverty

bloomberg.com

1–10 of 387 posts

Re: Stop Blaming America’s Poor for Their Poverty

#2
There will always be relative poverty. In other words if we "solved poverty" and there were no more hungry people without health insurance sleeping in the streets, you would still have people who had less than others around them.

But we can try to solve absolute poverty. We can try to make sure everyone has medical coverage, adequate nutrition etc.

An important element of that is we need to design systems where having less than others doesn't close doors in your face and become a trap you can't escape. (I don't think UBI accomplishes that.)

Re: Stop Blaming America’s Poor for Their Poverty

#3
When we redline, assign schools without regard to quality, hassle folks for petty infractions to pump revenue, sieze assets without due process, limit entrepreneurship with onerous licensing requirements, and imprison poor folks at higher rates you end up with a perpetual underclass.

Re: Stop Blaming America’s Poor for Their Poverty

#4
Blaming those without power for the way The System has tilted the game against them is Orwellian.

Poverty is not a choice (any more than drug addiction is a choice). But we prefer to blame the victims because it's easier than looking in the mirror and accepting our role in the mess.

Re: Stop Blaming America’s Poor for Their Poverty

#5

When we redline, assign schools without regard to quality, hassle folks for petty infractions to pump revenue, sieze assets without due process, limit entrepreneurship with onerous licensing requirements, and imprison poor folks at higher rates you end up with a perpetual underclass.

> limit entrepreneurship with onerous licensing requirements

I work for a government agency that provides professional licensing in my state and was shocked the other day to learn that you need a license to operate as a "hair braider". This seemed a bit excessive to me

Re: Stop Blaming America’s Poor for Their Poverty

#6

There will always be relative poverty. In other words if we "solved poverty" and there were no more hungry people without health insurance sleeping in the streets, you would still have people who had less than others around them. But we can try to solve absolute poverty. We can try to make sure everyone has medical coverage, adequate nutrition etc. An important element of that is we need to design systems where havin…

Do you mean inequality? Poverty has a specific meaning. We define poverty thresholds. Middle class is not in "relative poverty" compared to billioners.

Re: Stop Blaming America’s Poor for Their Poverty

#7

When we redline, assign schools without regard to quality, hassle folks for petty infractions to pump revenue, sieze assets without due process, limit entrepreneurship with onerous licensing requirements, and imprison poor folks at higher rates you end up with a perpetual underclass.

> limit entrepreneurship with onerous licensing requirements I work for a government agency that provides professional licensing in my state and was shocked the other day to learn that you need a license to operate as a "hair braider". This seemed a bit excessive to me

In some places you need a license to wash hair.

Re: Stop Blaming America’s Poor for Their Poverty

#8
post #6

There will always be relative poverty. In other words if we "solved poverty" and there were no more hungry people without health insurance sleeping in the streets, you would still have people who had less than others around them. But we can try to solve absolute poverty. We can try to make sure everyone has medical coverage, adequate nutrition etc. An important element of that is we need to design systems where havin…

Do you mean inequality? Poverty has a specific meaning. We define poverty thresholds. Middle class is not in "relative poverty" compared to billioners.

The threshold at which people use the term "poverty" is very different in different countries (including the official American definition, which changes), even after adjusting for PPP. So whether or not it's officially supposed to be an absolute measure, in practice it's relative.

Re: Stop Blaming America’s Poor for Their Poverty

#9

When we redline, assign schools without regard to quality, hassle folks for petty infractions to pump revenue, sieze assets without due process, limit entrepreneurship with onerous licensing requirements, and imprison poor folks at higher rates you end up with a perpetual underclass.

> limit entrepreneurship with onerous licensing requirements I work for a government agency that provides professional licensing in my state and was shocked the other day to learn that you need a license to operate as a "hair braider". This seemed a bit excessive to me

That license may also require formal schooling in the amounts of many hundreds of hours of instruction as well...

Re: Stop Blaming America’s Poor for Their Poverty

#10

There will always be relative poverty. In other words if we "solved poverty" and there were no more hungry people without health insurance sleeping in the streets, you would still have people who had less than others around them. But we can try to solve absolute poverty. We can try to make sure everyone has medical coverage, adequate nutrition etc. An important element of that is we need to design systems where havin…

>... (I don't think UBI accomplishes that.)

Does anyone have a flashlight? I can't quite see, it's so dark all the way down here where this lede is buried.

Post reply on HN