Lies of Plutocracy: Exploding Five Myths that Dehumanize the Poor

[proud2BlibKansan]

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1. The Bootstrap Myth
Negative assertions about the poor are in part a product of the American bootstrap myth: Anyone who works hard enough in America will have a great life. And if you don't have a great life, then you lack the will, integrity or intelligence to succeed. These kinds of concepts are what the late Australian philosopher Val Plumwood called "conceptual weapons." They work together to structure a system of thought that distorts, oversimplifies and ultimately fosters ignorance about, and shame amongst, oppressed groups of people.

2. The Poor Are Unemployed
The bootstrap myth works together with the stereotype that all poor people are unemployed. This thinking gives rise to the conclusion that the best way to address poverty is to get everyone a job. But these fallacious assertions gloss over the glaring fact that many poor people are working. The Census reported that, in 2010, 7 percent of those aged 16 and older who worked some or all of the year were in poverty.[3] And the Department of Agriculture reported that 30 percent of households receiving food assistance had earnings in 2010; 41 percent of food aid beneficiaries lived in a household with earnings from a job.[4] Nearly a quarter - 21.8 percent - of non-elderly adult food stamp recipients were employed.[5]

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3. Poor (i.e. lazy, uneducated etc.) Equals Black
You'll notice that Gingrich and Santorum exclusively concentrate on the black community's reception of food assistance. This not-so-subtle message is that black people are getting by on white America's dime. But the fact of the matter is that about 1 in 7 Americans are receiving food assistance,[9] and most of them are white: 35.7 percent of head of households receiving food aid are white, 22 percent are African-American, and 10 percent are Hispanic.[10]

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4. The Poor Refuse to Work
A cornerstone in plutocratic mythology is that the poor just won't take responsibility for their lives and get to work! This belief is logically implied in Romney's now infamous remarks about the Obama-47 percent. In addition to inaccurately representing the political-orientation and make-up of those who pay no income taxes,[13] Romney chastised poor welfare beneficiaries ( many of whom turn out to be Republicans!) for refusing to take responsibility, but instead demanding government solve all of their problems and provide for their every need.

more . . . http://truth-out.org/news/item/12264-lies-of-plutocracy-exploding-five-myths-that-dehumanize-the-poor

[silverweb]

1. K&R

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]Unfortunately, the people who really need to understand this will never read it.

Their lives are so insular, and their willful ignorance is so profound and ingrained, that they will reject anything that does not conform with their fixed opinions.

The last time I sent something beautifully clear and factual to a person who badly needed some facts, I got an immediate email back in caps lock that started with "This is crap!!!!" There will always, I'm afraid, be that percentage who prefer ignorance and hatred.

[Igel]

2. Both sides like fallacies.

And that's the problem, falling for a whole-part fallacy. It distorts, over-simplifies, and ultimately serves to obfuscate the facts on the ground, which prevents solutions or reasoned conversation.

Even when the a person's utterances are reasoned, often the listener is not reasonable. There's a lot of diversity, and neither side does justice to that diversity.

Instead we get fairly meaningless stats from both sides, chosen not to illuminate but to crush what amounts to a straw-zerg rush.

Part of the problem for poverty is random misfortune. Part of the problem is poor planning, at times being clotheslined by avoidable misfortune. Part is bad character. You can't wedge all of the problem under any single cause, and any attempt to do so is going to crucially rely on a whole-part fallacy.