re: Is poverty the common denominator of every major social problem?

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So, by your own parameters it was a bad decision on your dad's part to start a business that plunged your family into poverty. But at the same time you argue it was a great decision because the business is now flourishing. You can't have it both ways.

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No... lol

That’s a risky decision. It has paid off.

A bad decision is someone who decides that they do not need to make any changes in their life in order to make their life better. Instead they deserve to have a better life simply because they exist.

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Had you said bad decision can keep you in poverty, or bad decisions can plunge you into poverty, I would agree. It is not THE cause of poverty though.

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Yes it is. In America you can make anything of yourself. You can go to school and get a scholarship to university. You can go to trade school and in less than a year make over $80,000. You can go work at McDonald’s/Walmart and work your way to management and easily clear $70,000-&100,000. If you live in America, your destiny is determined by the decisions you make now.

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How easy is it to move from middle class to the upper class? It's pretty difficult and takes some luck along the way, along with hard work and dedication.

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No such thing as luck.

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One reason it is difficult are the barriers put in place by a system that often favors the wealthy. That's not to say those barriers can't be overcome, because they can. The same applies for someone trying to get out of poverty.

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How can you suggest it favors the wealthy whenever our tax system literally makes the wealthy pay far more than their share, and at the same time those in poverty who make absolutely no positive contributions to society are given free money, free housing, free healthcare, free phones... etc on the basis that they exist?

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The common denominator in every major social problem today is rejection of the traditional Judeo-Christian values society was built on, coupled with the dissolution of the family structure in society.

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The demos with the worst family structure identity as the most religious (Baptist, particularly). Just food for thought.

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This isn’t true. I’m proof of that. And I know I’m nothing special.

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So if you are born into a home that’s entire income is government handouts, then when you grow up you will also have a household that’s entire income is from government handouts? Then your children will also have the same fate, relying on the government for handouts?

If that’s true, then who is making you and your family do that?

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The demos with the worst family structure identity as the most religious (Baptist, particularly). Just food for thought.

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Lol, yes.

Amazing isn’t it that this country was founded with such values, yet all the people from other countries where these values were not a part of their founding want to flock here.

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The demos with the worst family structure identity as the most religious (Baptist, particularly). Just food for thought.

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Just because someone sits in a pew and calls themselves Baptist (or whatever) doesn’t mean they’re actually living the values they outwardly appear to believe.

Thinking someone sitting in a church pew every Sunday morning for an hour means they’re actually living a truly Christian life is like thinking a sick person can get well just by going to the doctor’s office and sit in the waiting room without ever actually being treated by the doctor.

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I'm just using your own statement. Your original statement was bad decisions cause poverty. You put no qualifiers on that statement. You later said your dad started his own business and that decision put your family in poverty. so by your own parameters, your dad's bad decision caused your family's poverty, regardless of any future outcome of that decision. The short term result was poverty, by your own admission.

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Lol, now you’re being purposefully ignorant.

It could have been a bad decision if he’d decided to start a business, then instead of making good decisions to make that business profitable he made bad ones that caused the business to fail. It’s all about the decisions you make. He made good decisions, worked weekends, and made it what it is today.

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Lol, now you’re being purposefully ignorant.

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Sorry I used your own story to prove your statement false.


Better luck next time, champ.

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No one gave me or my family anything.

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Perhaps but meeting the right person at the right time or hell just not being born to a drug addicted mother are lucky things that happen that lead to your success.

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We leveraged everything for what we have.

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Sure. Every reasonable intelligent person does this but that is not the point of my comment and is not luck.

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You call it luck.

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Luck is being born to responsible parents and family regardless of income or education level. Luck is meeting the right person at the right time or not being born with some debilitating condition and having an above average IQ.

These are things you are born with that you had zero control over but contribute greatly to your success whether or not you care to acknowledge it.

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And I can only assume you call it luck because you have never actually known hard work

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That is a hell of an assumption. I come from a poor family in Louisiana and am the first person to graduate with a bachelor's and master's on my mom's side of the family. I did not grow up in poverty but I also learned to work hard and to make good decisions. I certainly have worked hard to achieve what I have in life but I am also humble enough to acknowledge that I was lucky to be born into a family that valued hard work and education and I was afforded opportunities that my parents did not have.

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You’ve never leveraged everything for the faint possibility of having some resemblance of having the American dream

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Yet another patently false assumption on your part. You seem very defensive that we are pointing out that luck played a part in your success. It is not meant as a personal attack or to belittle your success.

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What this is really about is jealousy. It’s sad, but it’s true.

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I am jealous or envious of noone. I am grateful for what I have been able to achieve in life. I am just cognizant of the fact that my success is not solely due to my hard work but that I had some favorable breaks along the way such as being healthy, reasonably intelligent, and a caring family that supported me to get to where I am today.

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It could have been a bad decision if he’d decided to start a business, then instead of making good decisions to make that business profitable he made bad ones that caused the business to fail.

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Yeah, I made that point several posts ago. Bad decisions can absolutely keep you in poverty, no question, and good decisions can bring you out of it. Your claim was bad decisions CAUSE poverty. That is the claim I'm calling BS on.

If my dad had decided to quit his job to start a business, then made bad decisions it would have made the original decision to start a business a bad decision. Again, our future is contingent upon the decisions we make today.