The welfare state is bringing about a curious dichotomy. It is actually increasing the numbers of the poor while paying lip service to helping them out of poverty. That's the way any rational human being might see it if his paradigm weren't clouded by considerations such as being re-elected to office or gaining advancement in the field of social work. But the prevailing wisdom has it that poverty is on the increase with some poverty activists blaming the increase in the poverty rolls on, wait for it...the rich!
I'm sure that poverty rates are increasing. I'm sure they are increasing at a much faster rate than even maintained by most poverty activists, but I do not believe that the rich are to blame.
Let's examine some of the "root causes" of poverty in this country in a dispassionate and logical fashion. People are poor, why? Is it more likely because they are poorly educated, unskilled and addicted to generous welfare stipends, or is it because the Thompson family earned an additional $27 million last year? If the Thompsons had lost $27 million last year, would that money have wound up in the pockets of the poor? I don't think so either.
People are poor for a variety of reasons, but there are only a handful that appear to be common to most the poor: Lack of education, teenage pregnancy (better known by the euphemism of child poverty), poor job skills, single parent households and easily accessible, addictive social assistance programs. Others may include lifestyle choices such as substance abuse.
Poverty is not the result of others' wealth. Continued, chronic poverty is the result of the nanny state eager to take care of those less fortunate in the most expedient way–by simply handing out money. Problem is, by merely receiving money the recipients of the government's largesse have no incentive to elevate themselves. On the contrary, there is a true disincentive standing in the way of welfare recipients breaking out of the welfare trap. any monies earned outside of welfare must be reported and is then deducted from subsequent welfare payments. Hence it's easier just not to work and rely on the government to care for the needy. That's problem one.
Problem two involves the victim mentality that society has fostered among many individuals. Conventional wisdom used to hold that if you were poor, then our system of government and economics made it possible to break out of the poverty cycle through hard work and determination. The current conventional wisdom appears to be that the poor are sentenced to being poor for life, making it impossible to break out of the poverty cycle. Not only that, but the system by nature engenders welfare dynasties as the children and grandchildren of the poor are doomed to live out their lives in poverty as well.
The Horatio alger stories of yesteryear seem no longer to apply. Instead, there appears to be a pervasive sense of "why bother?" among many young people, which is partially responsible for the dramatic climb in the number of children dropping out of school in favor of menial jobs or petty crime.
Problem three is the school system. Now that education has fallen under the thumb of teachers' unions and their kooky ideas about education, children are graduating from high school barely able to read, write, add or subtract. But, boy, they're loaded with self-esteem and a sense of entitlement. What's more, many are sorely lacking in social skills, making them only qualified for the most menial of minimum wage jobs. How many times have you been at a fast-food outlet only to have your server get your order wrong or miscount your change or both? Now multiply that by the vast army of under qualified, unskilled and uneducated employees currently working in many entry level jobs and you will see that poverty will increase hugely in the future.
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