Being Poor is NOT a virtue!

Living in the "bible belt" I have noticed this attitude among so called christians.

I call them out every chance I get. It seems the evil atheists and agnostics care more about the less fortunate than the so called christians.

The so called christians condem themselves...and show their true colors.

Most are selfish hypocrites that give a small amount to the church every week and feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Then tell themselves how good they are.

 

I would like to see some documentation of this claim.

I grew up extremely poor. I am not now.

 

WTF ARE THEY? I've NEVER seen someone who wound up on skid row smoking crack because of "circumstances beyond their control."

Ghettos are not full of people who are just having a temporary "run of bad luck" in thier lives. GHETTOS ARE GENERATIONAL PROBLEMS, NOT TEMPORARY AND THEY ARE A SELF INFLICTED PHENOMENA.

WTF do you people keep trying to pretend that their is this hidden mass of poor people who work 40-50 hours a week and starve on spaghettios? Those people are like 1 out of every 1000.

The vast majority of the ghettos in this country are filled with a permanent underclass with a cultural proclivity to avoid hard work, education and self advancement and they must be punished for it.

 

Actually Christians are the most forceful advocates for charity and reach deeper into their own pockets than any other demographic. They're also the most forceful advocates for personal responsibility, so that charity is not wasted on the irresponsible. When the poor person takes your money and then buys cigs and beer and maybe a little meth, you get angry. Why? Because your help makes no difference whatsoever. People want to give, but they also want to make a difference. I've been on the receiving end of charity. People helped out my family when we were going through a rough patch. The greatest thanks I gave to them is that I used their help to make our situation better and became self sufficient again. They were very pleased to help because we made sure that their help helped us.

It is interesting that you see among the most generous Americans as the most stingiest. It must mean you have some special goggles that reverses everything you see so that truth becomes error and error truth.

 

Actually, you are aggrandizing the rate at which this occurs. Democrats are poverty pimps. They need poverty to win elections and when poverty isn't big enough, they exaggerate it.

Ooh. Ooh. I've been blown away by your anectotal evidence. Maybe I can use my allergies to get a few concessions out of government too.

I'll take that in stride.

Except when they aren't. What you call usual is actually unusual, medical problems that have absolutely nothing to do with a person's lifestyle choices.

You said that twice now. Loses its effectiveness. The reason I'm so calm and you're not is because I knew I won this argument the moment you lost your head.

So why are you saying it? I said that we have 100% control over certain things in our lives and there are consequences for not exercising that control prudently.

I'm also right. I'll bear any insult, criticism, invective, economic loss, loss of friendship, loss of approval etc to be right. I will stand alone and face the wrath of the court of public opinion as long as I'm standing on the truth. It's all that matters to me.

 

You're correct about why some people are poor. But for many it's not that simple. You can't believe that only irresponsible people are poor?

And in what world is 40 thousand dollars a year poor?

 

you consider 40k "Poor"??

 

Socio-economic destiny? Explain more, please.

 

See post #32. I've found another ignorant bachelor.

 

and when you are faced with a situation, you make the best decision you can at the time. Maybe you make a good one, maybe you make a bad one...

it's easy to go back and second guess someone

 

I will let Lincoln do it:

Does that explain it enough for you?

 

yep, I would agree with this to an extent...

there are a million reasons people are poor, it can't all be traced to one or two factors...

just like every rich person didn't choose to be rich, not every poor person chooses to be poor.

 

Is that what SMW meant? Some of those things ... folly, for example ... run counter to destiny.

I mean, if destiny is involved then it doesn't matter what you do, you're going to be either rich or poor according to said destiny.

 

children eat what they are fed by their caregivers...and the caregivers feed what they can afford and what is available. Eating healthy is expensive and not every family lives near a farmers market

a decade or so ago, I would argue with you but there is no excuse for people not knowing the dangers of smoking (but this isn't a poverty issue exactly)

if someone is working a minimum wage job, supporting anyone, there is little money or time to devote to 'preparation' and little 'choice' when something bad happens.

I don't think there are very many people here that have ever been poor or have any experiences with poverty, have they? anyone?

I grew up in government housing and I see both sides of this issue, my siblings and I got out of it, barely...but my mother is still stuck in it...as are so many of my relatives.

the system is designed to KEEP people in poverty not to get them out. The success stories are in spite of government not because of...

if you want to reform social programs to help people off welfare and out of poverty talk to those of us that have dug our way out.

 

no you have found a married woman with children living in the real world not your ivory tower.

 

You DO have it correct; many extreme, fiscal Conservatives can't bring themselves to seriously consider what you've shared.

 

"hired laborer"...so you own your own business and look down on your employees?

what exactly is wrong with a 'hired laborer'? I think Lincoln is not talking about the same thing as you are...

 

How is my ivory tower any different than yours? You think that raising a family on $40k is easy so you painted your own ignorance for all to see. Are you really so ignorant as to think $40k puts me in the MIDDLE CLASS?

 

It's not a virtue, but it does score you a lot of elitist points with the left wing hipster crowd. Like listening to a bunch of bands nobody has heard of. The whole thing is a subconscious childish need to rebel against the status quo. Being poor makes you "good" because it means you're fighting the system. Which is always bad and oppressive. No matter what era we're living in and no matter what it is actually doing. It's just bad because it's mainstream. And the counter culture is always sooooooooo much more highly evolved with their arrogance and cynicism.

If you want to sit at the cool kids table, you have to deny yourself things like money, success, and happiness. Which means surrendering any control over your own circumstances and creating a victim identity that believes it's always someone else's fault why your life sucks. Otherwise, what would you have to complain about?

 

I try not to quote Lincoln. His illegal and unconstitutional war caused generational poverty for nearly 100 years, especially in southern states. There is no virtue he can espouse that isn't undone a thousand times over by his outrageous actions.

 

And the biggest poverty pimps are the richest people in Congress. Senator Kerry, Senator Boxer, Rep. Pelosi...all filthy rich. Like Michael Moore, they get rich while talking about the evil of riches. Such rank hypocricy!

 

Yes, he was:

Excerpt from Lincoln's Speech on the Differences between Free and Slave Labor

Now you tell me how this solemn truth, which has been accepted truth in America for 223 years, suddenly changed and when it suddenly changed, and why it's impossible for the average person to follow Lincoln's advice?

 

Raising a family is NEVER easy and it wasn't meant to be, and yes, the average median household income in America is 48k a year, that's as middle class as it gets in America.

 

The most generous assessment of Lincoln is that he started out in support of slavery, grew a conscience, and then made getting rid of it the new motivation for his already launched illegal war. I'm sorry, I have to break from conservatives who fawn over Lincoln including Glenn Beck and Mark Levin.

But with that said, some of Lincoln's quotes are jewels that apply to the liberal mentality today, such as:

If only the socialist left could wrap their little brains around THAT one.