I read this recently… What do you think primarily causes
poverty in the U.S.A.?
Dave Ramsey in this article
said the following:
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“Poverty is caused and perpetuated primarily by some
combination of three things:
1. Personal habits, choices and character;
3. The myriad of problems encountered if born in a
third-world economy.”
---------
I think there’s a wide variety of issues that affect
and/or cause poverty. And I don’t have a solution for nor do I pretend to
understand it all. However, I think Dave Ramsey’s thoughts are incomplete
particularly in regards to external factors and circumstances. To expand a
little on Dave’s ideas see below on numbers 1, 2, and 3. #4 is my addition.
1a. Personal habits – spending more than you make, Eating Junk food, lack of
exercise, not having goals, continuing education/learning, lack of networking,
watching excessive amounts of TV,
1b. Choices – drug use, alcoholism, education or lack of, welfare
dependency (fatalist mentality), having too many children (without having the
income to support said children)
1c. Character – laziness, lack of motivation, selfishness, lack of
discipline, lack of responsibility...
What else comes to mind here?
2. Oppression by people taking
advantage of the poor.
*The rich taking advantage of lack of
knowledge/education of poor people
*The rich taking advantage of lack of
understanding of laws of poor people
3. The myriad of problems encountered
if born in a third-world economy. (Topic for
another post I believe.)
4. External Factors and Circumstances
–
*natural disasters (tornados,
hurricanes, earthquakes, droughts, etc.)
*degradation of environment (soil,
water, deforestation, etc.),
*family of origin (where and when you
are born),
*quality of education (depending on
where you live),
*mental illnesses/disorders (anxiety
disorders, mood disorders, psychotic disorders, eating disorders, addiction
disorders, impulse control disorders, personality disorders, etc. such as:
autism, schizophrenia, bipolar, phobias, ADHD, etc.)
*physical disabilities (thankfully
there are laws protecting people with these challenges),
*general illnesses that are hard to
prevent or are hereditary in nature (such as cancer, heart disease, obesity,
etc.),
*economic trends (job market
slow-down resulting among other things in loss of employment and fewer
opportunities for employment)
While there are many examples of
people who have risen out of poverty, the statistics say that 70% of those who are born in the
bottom fifth never climb to even the middle of the economic ladder.
Dave Ramsey also said:
---------
“If you are broke or poor in the U.S.
or a first-world economy, the only variable in the discussion you can
personally control is YOU. You can make better choices and have better
results.”
---------
From a Christian perspective DR is
wrong as well. There is no guarantee in the Bible that we will be wealthy as
Christians. I don’t believe God divides people as those who deserve to be
rich and those who deserve to be poor. Blaming lack of wealth on lack of
faith as some do (Benny Hinn) or lack of initiative (Dave Ramsey) isn’t right
either. That said we CAN try to do our best (budget, have an emergency fund,
track our expenses, save for the future, etc.) to be good stewards of what God
has given us.
Bottom line: I don't believe that the
ills of poverty can be condensed to 3 simple bullet points. It makes for a good
sales pitch though. People want to hear that "if you do "A",
then "B" will automatically happen. And so people sign up in droves.
I see the same thing in infomercials promising to teach you how to make
guaranteed money off the market. People want to hear that if
they invest with Dave's guys, they can get 12% long-term annual growth. Same
goes for poverty. If those three bullet points cause poverty, eliminate them
from your life and you won't be in poverty, because you've eliminated the
cause.
What do you think are some of the
causes of poverty? Leave a comment!
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