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Can any healthy adult get themselves out of poverty?

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It seems to me that there are plenty enough unmotivated impoverished people out there to fill the economical niche for the lowest-of-the-low, but what if there werent? Could every single poor person in a capitalist nation such as the USA just up and become thriving members of society one day, or would there be a certain percentage who are physically incapable of finding a job that would rise them above the poverty line?>>

Well, if it helps to answer your question, there is a finite amount of productive capital in existence, so there is thus a finite amount number of people who may be employed under the current economic arrangement. Given that even in the best of times, usage of capital is below capacity, there MUST be a certain number of individuals who are unemployed at any given moment.

Of course, if every capitalist were to start employing more people spontaneously (this would reduce profits), there would be more wage-earners, and thus more consumers to buy the capitalist's goods. The problem is that no single capitalist will act altruistically in the name of macroeconomic health (with rare exceptions, eg Ford).

ebola
 
You'd have to define poverty to question this answer.
The el-ites who have a magic printing press consider
the middle class impoverished, because we don't have a magic printing press.

Poverty is relative to your position.
American dumpsters would feed villages in Africa.
protovack I laughed about the lazyboy man: "society MAKES me smoke."
It's a good illustration, this demonstrates how it just takes a bit of self-responsibility to realize society ain't real. Its just individual delusions. Illusion is the final truth.

If I feel rich sitting on a marble pillar in the middle of the deserts,
dissolving rice grains in my mouth as an ascetic,
then I am omni-wealthy.
 
Akoto, one of the biggest barriers many poor people have (worldwide, I'd guess) to getting a decent job is impressing someone who has the capability to hire them for one.

I was once on an overnight train through the Chinese hinterlands. At one point I was standing between train cars during a stop, and I witnessed the conductor violently push away a woman who was trying to board, although the person before her in line was allowed to pass without a second look. It was plainly obvious to the conductor the rejected passenger was rural and desperately poor, and the conductor assumed she probably didn't have a ticket, and couldn't afford one.

This incident moved me so much that I wrote a short story based on it, in which the woman DID have a ticket, which she had saved for for months, to be able to see her mother before she died, and then later discovers if she'd been given the chance to board and tender her ticket, would have seen her alive one last time :(

In all countries that are not homogenously well-off, this is the sort of reception lower class people get when they seek out 'good jobs' and other 'decent folk' ammenities. The employer takes one look at them an instantly thinks 'no way in hell.'

It takes cultural capital, that is, guidance (or memes, if you wish) from people you know and trust, to be able to carry yourself the right way for non-lower-class people to take you seriously. To someone for whom the middle class and beyond are alien worlds in which they don't relate, that's not easy. Those who are determined to learn can probably 'fake it till they make it' by watching enough TV and reading enough magazines. But that's assuming they're not being ridiculed as 'la de dah!' by the people they come from.
 
The secret to getting out of poverty is to not have kids

There's some truth in this, but if you're in poverty, passive or negative action such as "not having kids" isn't really going to change anything.
 
In all countries that are not homogenously well-off, this is the sort of reception lower class people get when they seek out 'good jobs' and other 'decent folk' ammenities. The employer takes one look at them an instantly thinks 'no way in hell.'
I agree but I will also offer a counter example.

Consider mexicans. Recently mexicans were viewed as "lazy" and "unproductive" in the U.S. However today, most intelligent employers are keenly aware of just how motivated mexican workers can be. The stereotype has now been almost completely reversed. My friend's father started his own home improvement company and now hires mexican immigrants for part-time help during the busy summer season, mainly because he knows that they are very good employees.

Of course maybe they are viewed favorably because they will work for lower wages and thus represent a better value for the employer. Is that right? Maybe not, but it definately shows that preconceptions about the qualifications of lower-class workers can shift.

Maybe this effect is starting to spill over into the more middle-class arena as well - maybe mexican immigrants to the U.S are getting hired for better paying positions based off their performance in more menial jobs.
 
^^^ I'd say one inherent property of American society is that the largest and most recent immigrant group at any point in time is always mistrusted by the native-born population, and stereotyped as lazy until enough of them prove otherwise.

In most places in the world, sadly, I'd say how you're judged and whether or not you're taken seriously for X job / position is purely a function of who 'your people' are, and how they as a group are judged. In cultures that are more toward the group-centered end of the spectrum than the individualist (which is most, IME), any given individual will see more value in bitching together with other members of Group A about how hard it is to get hired as a member of Group A, than to forsake his group and reinvent himself in a way that makes him more attractive to those handing out jobs.
 
The secret to getting out of poverty is to not have kids

This may be true in the US, but in many developing countries families pump out kids so that it may be a long-term investment, meaning the kids will eventually work for them and help them out of poverty.
 
MyDoorsAreOpen said:
^^^ I'd say one inherent property of American society is that the largest and most recent immigrant group at any point in time is always mistrusted by the native-born population, and stereotyped as lazy until enough of them prove otherwise.

In most places in the world, sadly, I'd say how you're judged and whether or not you're taken seriously for X job / position is purely a function of who 'your people' are, and how they as a group are judged. In cultures that are more toward the group-centered end of the spectrum than the individualist (which is most, IME), any given individual will see more value in bitching together with other members of Group A about how hard it is to get hired as a member of Group A, than to forsake his group and reinvent himself in a way that makes him more attractive to those handing out jobs.

Um what are they going to do? Change the colour of their skin and their accent?

And why should they have to forsake their own group? Why can't they get jobs regardless of their ethnic roots? You want them to change so that employers can continue being racist without challenge?
 
If a person thinks he is poverty-stricken, he can always become a Drug dealer.
Prostitution is always available to any female (even if she is has Cancer).
Purse-snatching could make a tidy sum too.

Or, to avoid poverty, just commit a crime (and confess). Then you get free room-and-board, and clothes ...

I think that if a person is willing to do anything to avoid poverty, that he can probably do it.
The problem with most people is: They have many things they would rather NOT do.
 
And why should they have to forsake their own group? Why can't they get jobs regardless of their ethnic roots? You want them to change so that employers can continue being racist without challenge?

No, he is saying that after a certain amount of time has passed, the "my group is disadvantaged" argument becomes an excuse rather than a legitimate issue.

For example, a poor white male who insists affirmative action is the reason he has a crap job - when in reality he has a crab job because he has no aspirations or goals. Rather than admit the hard truth, he rails against the perceived enemy (non-whites) as being the reason for his hardship.
 
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