Blaming the poor for being poor is a fool’s game. Recognizing that all of us had help to get where we are is the beginning of wisdom. Laying emotional charges aside and researching how to make that help more efficient and cost affective ends up helping everyone. As I’ve said in other posts, the research shows that a lot of outcomes are fixed by age 2 and are very predictable. Other industrial countries address that better than we do. Beyond age 2 there are other things that can be done to ease suffering and lessen the economic and social stress that ends up affecting us all.
In my posts, I have not been "blaming" poor people. I have pointed out that many if not most poor people could be in better positions if they had made better choices. I am trying to be objective, not trying to assign blame or disavow any responsibility for society.
One thing that I stated before is that from personal anecdotal experience, poor people I have seen use money immediately upon receiving it. They seem to have a belief that the money won't be there in a few days. It seems to make a self-fulfilling prophecy. I am not laying blame on them. I am simply saying that if such a person were to plan, decide what they actually need, and budget for those needs, they would have money for a longer period. They would also likely be able to save at least a small amount. If they do that until they actually have some money saved up, they can likely make better decisions about jobs, transportation, housing, etc. I believe that even a lot of middle class people don't actually have budgets and don't realize how important and liberalizing a personal budget actually is.
Back to the poor. I don't advocate blaming the poor and saying it is their fault. I also don't advocate exonerating them because of trauma or difficulty that they have experienced. What I would advocate for is convincing them to make use of opportunities that they already have available to themselves. I won't go into details, but I was in a situation once in my life where I thought that I had zero way out. I sat down with a friend who was an outside observer to the situation, and he just pointed me in a direction. Once you get away from the emotion and stress involved, you can see that things aren't hopeless. This wouldn't apply to people in third world countries, but for most of the poor in the US, there are expenditures that can be eliminated or at least delayed. People don't need cigarettes, vapers, beer, lotto tickets, etc. They might want them, but if they delay spending on those things until the can actually afford them they can work themselves into a better spot.(or hopefully give at least some of them up) It might feel bad to not have those things, or for a class bump up to not have the latest iPhone. However, if your car has an unexpected $700 repair, and you happen to have $1,500 in the bank in an emergency fund, that feels much better than your friends with the latest iPhone who start scrambling to pull together $700 to get their car out of the shop. I don't really care if the poor person is to blame, or if his parent's caused him trauma which cause him to act that way.(which will probably lead to trauma for his kids, and lead to future problems) What we should work towards is getting people to use the opportunities that they already have and maximize them.
