Evidence That Poor People Aren’t Lazy

[eridani]

http://www.nationofchange.org/2015/11/29/evidence-that-poor-people-arent-lazy/

Many wealthy white conservative males believe they deserve their good fortunes, and that the poor are taking handouts. But on average little of the money of the wealthiest Americans is spent on productive job-creating ventures. Potential young entrepreneurs, in contrast, are too often mired in debt and deprived of opportunities to prosper.

Based on the evidence, the very people demeaned by the rich as ‘lazy’ are generally the hardest workers.

Most Safety Net Recipients Are Working

Almost 63 percent of America’s work-eligible poor are working, and 73 percent of public support recipients are members of working families. As noted by Paul Krugman, “only 26 percent of jobless Americans are receiving any kind of unemployment benefit, the lowest level in many decades.”

For Those Who Aren’t Working, Living-Wage Opportunities Aren’t Available

Congress has continually thwarted job creation proposals, contributing to a stunning increase in the long-term unemployment rate, from 17.5 percent to 43.7 percent after the recession, and then down to a still-middle-class-crushing 27 percent today.

The Middle Class Produces the Entrepreneurs

Experience has shown that productive new ideas, and the job creation that comes with them, are generated by young middle class people. But as debt and job loss has plagued this part of America over the past 30 years, the number of new startups has dropped dramatically.

[merrily]

1. "If you don't work, you don't eat." Supposedly, Capt. John Smith said

something like that when Western Europeans first got here. It never ends. Everyone wants to look down on someone else. Imagine what the species could have achieved if the view had been, "Whatever this is, we're all in it together. Let's figure out how great we can make it for everyone and how each of us can help."

Sometimes, I think we're hard-wired to be dumbasses.

[pinqy]

2. I think you have the lesson backwards

The men whom Smith was addressing were "gentlemen" who thought it was beneath them to work, even as the colony was starving. The poor attitude in this case was on the part of those refusing to work.