By Dan Calabrese ——Bio and Archives--May 25, 2017
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Mr. Carson, who oversees a department that handles housing for millions of low-income Americans, made the comments during a radio interview on Tuesday with Armstrong Williams, a friend and conservative media personality. During the talk, Mr. Carson, a retired neurosurgeon, said he thought some people were poor because of their outlook on life. “I think poverty to a large extent is also a state of mind,” he said, according to a transcript of the interview that was released on Wednesday. “You take somebody that has the right mind-set, you can take everything from them and put them on the street, and I guarantee in a little while they’ll be right back up there.”
He added that helping people may not better their lives. “You take somebody with the wrong mind-set, you can give them everything in the world — they’ll work their way right back down to the bottom,” Mr. Carson said.Now anyone who isn't duty-bound to go insane over this because of partisan affiliations can see what Carson is talking about. We've all known people who had struggles in their lives. Maybe we tried to help them by giving them money, or advice, or by providing some other form of support. But what we found is that the one thing they could not escape was their own way of thinking, which always seemed to lead them right back to where they started. What will get you out of poverty is the right mindset of determination, a commitment to practice good habits, to learn as much as you can and to not under any circumstances accept that you are stuck in poverty with no way out. Do this relentlessly, and refuse to give up when the going seems difficult, and you will succeed. I know there are many people out there who have lived this and know it to be true. But say it to the left and all you're going to get is mocked:
Ben Carson said poverty is a state of mind.
— Zerlina Maxwell (@ZerlinaMaxwell) May 24, 2017
Next month, I'm going to tell my landlord that I paid my rent with positive thinking!
Say what?!!!! Explain a hungry child's state of mind. https://t.co/kyukif9zXF
— Valerie Jarrett (@ValerieJarrett) May 24, 2017
Ben Carson says that poverty is a "state of mind." You know what else is a state of mind? Always being a blithering idiot.
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) May 24, 2017
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