Looks Like It's Your Fault You're Poor

Two days ago I wrote some stuff on about another blog, the blog belonged to Jacqueline Passey, before I go into another little piece on her, I would like to give you some background on the person who is writing all of this. She was born in 1978, and what's funny about her is that despite the obvoious things that I disagree with her own, she and I share many of the same interests. I was reading up on some of the stuff she writes about and she likes my favorite band Blink-182, many of the shows that I enjoy including X-Files, X-Men, Angel, and Firefly. It's odd how someone you have a lot of interests in common with can be so different from you, that why I know that you can't base a realtionship solely on interests.

Going back to what I was saying, she grew up in an upper middle class family and she said that she went through a rebellious period in her life, that brings us to our blog. And I say that I really hope I don't offend anyone by posting this. But her exact blog entry is as follows:

Second, poverty in the US is largely the result of poor choices. "Former Clinton advisor William Galston sums up the matter this way: you need only do three things in this country to avoid poverty—finish high school, marry before having a child, and marry after the age of 20. Only 8 percent of the families who do this are poor; 79 percent of those who fail to do this are poor." (Quote from "Why We Don't Marry")

Poor people consistently demonstrate poor judgement.  They drink, smoke, and use drugs at higher rates than non-poor, then wonder why they get sick.  They choose not to buy adequate insurance, setting themselves up for financial catastrophe, claiming they "can't afford" it when they apparently have plenty of money to spend on color TVs and cigarettes.  They tend to be fatter, which as I've already explained, is 100% within their control and the result of either poor values or lack of self-control. 

Yes, I'm "blaming the victim."  The so-called "victims" are to blame!  They are the ones repeatedly making the bad decisions that put them into poverty and keep them there.

Who are the real victims?  US taxpayers.  The bottom 40% pay little or no income taxes, or even receive money in the form of tax credits.  Everyone else is forced to subsidize poor people's poor choices through numerous welfare programs that just encourage more bad behavior.  Incentives matter.  When you give people money and benefits for being poor, you get more "poor" people.

We need to stop encouraging poor people's bad choices and start holding them responsible instead.

Now I don't consider myself as a conservative, issues like prostitution being legal don't bother me. If people want to pay for something that plenty of people are giving out for free, that's their choice; I wouldn't want to. But hey it might take, look how they can sell a common fucking thing like water that covers most of the planet. And I definately don't consider myself a liberal I have never been for and never will be for abortion, simple as that.

But I think that what she is saying right here is pretty odd to say about a group such as the homless and impoverished where many of them have metal issues, are disabled or have other obstacles in their way. Let's paint the example of the ideal family, a mom, a dad, and a son and daughter. Rightfully so lets say your daughter needs surgery and you're already pretty much just getting by. You do this to make it better for her, and end up spending almost a decade coming back from it.

See the thing that people that are middle class don't seem to get is that the system is made for us, when it was constructed, it had the people at the top in mind. People that even if they don't have the right kind of insurance might be able to go to Canada and get it. I don't need to look at statistics. I can say this, drug addiction and alcoholism are diseases. And what really gets me about all of this when people talk like this about poverty is that these are the same people who are pro-abortion (pro choice is bullshit, pro abortion is what it is). These people act as if an unborn child is a disease that needs to be done away with when it is in you're body, going as far to refer to the child as if it is a parasite. Then on the other hand, when it comes to alcoholism and drug use, which are proven to be much like diseases, they shit on these poor people and want to make them be held accountable.

I think that Mitch Hedburn said it best when he said that alcoholism is the only disease you can have where people will get mad at you. No one is going to walk up to you and go, "You motherfucker, you've got a Lupis problem!" Now its true, I don't always bend over backwards to help the poor, but when I can I try. And I definately don't blame them for something that American society structured just so they couldn't win.

The trick here is, we all make bad choices, but when you don't have daddy there to bail you out, then its your fault and you should know that you don't have the right to make that choice, I guess. Does that sound fair to you?