Dr.Who
Well-Known Member
In some recent discussions on poverty I found myself mentioning the laziness of some poor people. It would be false to imply that laziness is the only or most important factor.
The inflammatory title is to get you all to open the thread.
Now since I don't want to perpetuate stereotypes I started this thread to clarify things a bit. There are multiple factors and three of the most important are as follows. These three account for most of the causes of poverty.
Being single. Single mothers are more likely to become poor and also more likely to stop being poor if they get married. The second half of that sentence is what you may not have heard before.
Not having an education, especially high school. People without an education are more likely to become poor and also more likely to stop being poor if they get an education.
Not working enough. People who do not work at all or enough are more likely to become poor and when they get a job or increase their hours they are more likely to stop being poor.
How much you value marriage, education, and work are cultural and each of these is effected by quite a lot of ones choices in life. Choosing to have sex with strangers you meet at the nightclub, choosing to drop out of school or just not pay attention, and choosing to dye your hair purple or speak a dialect other than standard english, are all choices that effect ones chance of being poor. This list of choices for each of these three categories could be quite large.
The inflammatory title is to get you all to open the thread.
Now since I don't want to perpetuate stereotypes I started this thread to clarify things a bit. There are multiple factors and three of the most important are as follows. These three account for most of the causes of poverty.
Being single. Single mothers are more likely to become poor and also more likely to stop being poor if they get married. The second half of that sentence is what you may not have heard before.
Not having an education, especially high school. People without an education are more likely to become poor and also more likely to stop being poor if they get an education.
Not working enough. People who do not work at all or enough are more likely to become poor and when they get a job or increase their hours they are more likely to stop being poor.
How much you value marriage, education, and work are cultural and each of these is effected by quite a lot of ones choices in life. Choosing to have sex with strangers you meet at the nightclub, choosing to drop out of school or just not pay attention, and choosing to dye your hair purple or speak a dialect other than standard english, are all choices that effect ones chance of being poor. This list of choices for each of these three categories could be quite large.