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Can I ask if anyone can actually point to any studies to highlight that? The linked article is very well sourced and I'd like to see sources that point to mentorship programs.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Unfortunately, most popele don't have the will or the guidance to figure this out. That is an incredibly naive way of looking at the problem.
Not at all. What's naive is presuming that people in poverty are just as driven and equipped to make good decisions as you are. Whether poverty causes ignorance and complacency or the relationship is reversed (it probably goes both ways and depends on the person) there's no question that a sizable minority, if not the majority, of people in poverty are quite content to live off of the government and spend their days…
I was one of those people born into poverty. Your post is remarkably ignorant of the circumstances we faced and dealt with, and why cheap entertainment is used as an escape from the crushing levels of bullshit we had to deal with on a daily basis.
For someone who says to put yourself into the shoes of the poor, you could do with a reality check yourself.
I am totally open to the idea as espoused in the comments that poverty is not about money but about decisions and mentorship. Can I ask if anyone can actually point to any studies to highlight that? The linked article is very well sourced and I'd like to see sources that point to mentorship programs.
Is that what you're going for?
> Poverty is not a lack of character – it’s a lack of cash. No. Poverty is a lack of education and, more importantly, mentorship. I am battling this right now with my next door neighbors, who use HOC, a Maryland social service that basically puts poor people in middle class neighborhoods by subsidizing rent. My neighbors have money. They spend it extremely poorly. It's a single mom with 2 kids. Both kids have iPhones…
I agree and disagree at the same time. I agree in that, education and mentorship is definitely helpful and part of the equation. I disagree that cash is not relevant to that same equation though. I think any reductionist argument will be flawed one way or the other, cash is not all they need, but education is not all they need either. And I'm sure there's even more variables at play. I also want to say, having an iPa…
Obviously I can only see my tiny slice in the form of an 11 year old coming over to my house asking for snacks bringing along his toys. I don't know how much income the mom has.
But what I do know, is that they seem to run out of food near the end of each month, despite SNAP subsidizing food.
So while abstaining from buying iPhones, iPads, and cable TV and other toys will not pay the rent, buying mid/low-tier Android instead of premium Apple, cutting cable, scratch offs, cigarettes, and other toys from the annual budget could easily relieve other stressors of poverty, for example by stocking shelves with nutritious food that lasts through the whole month.
> Poverty is not a lack of character – it’s a lack of cash. No. Poverty is a lack of education and, more importantly, mentorship. I am battling this right now with my next door neighbors, who use HOC, a Maryland social service that basically puts poor people in middle class neighborhoods by subsidizing rent. My neighbors have money. They spend it extremely poorly. It's a single mom with 2 kids. Both kids have iPhones…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> You will be ostracized by the rich and educated groups for not fitting in, and then how will you acclimate to a higher social sphere? What's so interesting in the rich (and supposedly educated, I'll take your word for it...) groups that you have to buy into them with expensive junk? Do you have any idea how many uneducated rich fools there are nowadays and how they spend their wealth in just as stupid ways as the p…
> What's so interesting in the rich (and supposedly educated, I'll take your word for it...) groups that you have to buy into them with expensive junk? The fact that opportunity is driven largely by networks, and that networks are typically class-gated (not exactly wealth-gated; most people recognize that class and temporary circumstances aren't the same thing.) Unfortunately, social seeking by the poor who aren't me…
This is true, but what kind of opportunities are of vital importance for someone who is wealthy already and which of those can't they just buy into without networking? Or, to put it more plainly, you've got a nice house, your kids go to the best schools, your capital income provides you with a comfortable lifestyle, what "opportunities" are you lacking exactly?
> Poverty is not a lack of character – it’s a lack of cash. No. Poverty is a lack of education and, more importantly, mentorship. I am battling this right now with my next door neighbors, who use HOC, a Maryland social service that basically puts poor people in middle class neighborhoods by subsidizing rent. My neighbors have money. They spend it extremely poorly. It's a single mom with 2 kids. Both kids have iPhones…
The idea is that they’ll find mentors in a middle class neighborhood. Attacking the character of suboptimal decision makers isn’t fair. They have lives and they have every right to decide how they live it. At the same time, they’re beholden to the economic forces that govern everyday life. Thinking back at my childhood, my parents gave me a computer, a $300 baseball glove, an N64...etc despite not being able to affor…
It is fair when a family routinely buys big ticket electronic items or vacations every month, but still runs out of food every month, despite being on food stamps.
> Poverty is not a lack of character – it’s a lack of cash. No. Poverty is a lack of education and, more importantly, mentorship. I am battling this right now with my next door neighbors, who use HOC, a Maryland social service that basically puts poor people in middle class neighborhoods by subsidizing rent. My neighbors have money. They spend it extremely poorly. It's a single mom with 2 kids. Both kids have iPhones…
I agree, but I also think there's social cost to not spending your money on status symbols. You will be ostracized by the rich and educated groups for not fitting in, and then how will you acclimate to a higher social sphere? Example[1] [1] https://gizmodo.com/im-buying-an-iphone-because-im-ashamed-o... edit: Ok this obviously isn't black and white, but I'm saying this should be considered among other things.
People don't need cash. That's the easy way out for intellectuals. And they sure as shit don't need a casino in their town. They need social infrastructure (families, extended families, social institutions like churches and service organizations), cultural infrastructure, and economic opportunity within this stable social structure. All of which the intellectual class has been helping the financial elites destroy for…
Cash is appealing because it's "cheap" and scalable. It's a cold, clinical approach that lets "leaders" feel good and appeals to people at first glance but doesn't actually solve problems. The things that will change people, families, and cities require true leadership, mentoring, holding people accountable, and friendship. It requires deep personal investment in people and neighborhoods and can't be done from an off…
> Poverty is not a lack of character – it’s a lack of cash. No. Poverty is a lack of education and, more importantly, mentorship. I am battling this right now with my next door neighbors, who use HOC, a Maryland social service that basically puts poor people in middle class neighborhoods by subsidizing rent. My neighbors have money. They spend it extremely poorly. It's a single mom with 2 kids. Both kids have iPhones…
>No. Poverty is a lack of education and, more importantly, mentorship. This is because [insert story about "neighbor"]
To put it very bluntly: I don't give two shits about your neighbour. This is the kind of thinking that justifies racism and other types of discrimination. I have a gypsy neighbour who collects welfare and does not work while he sells drugs in his neighbour |= therefore gypsies are leeches and criminals. You see the problem? For every story of yours I can tell you a story about a guy who had caring and hardworking parents, a nurturing environment, was he himself very hardworking, but simply had not enough money to make it in this world (not enough money to attend good schools, do extracurricular activities, had to care for his siblings or work after school himself, etc.). What does that tell me about this problem?
I don't care for anecdotes about your neighbour (because everybody has "a neighbour", or his cousin's wife has a friend from work who knows a guy who...), I don't care for "common sense opinions". I care for research, data, in short: meaningful facts about large-scale trends rather than individual cases, of which you can find every sort.