I have a reason for asking but I will say it after all the answers and I choose the best one. Just so we all have reminders, let’s go over some of the things we have:
*Free public education through high school
*Financial aid, scholarships, loans, grants for college – some states have big grants for residents
*Section 8 and HUD housing
*Utility assistance
*Car maintenance – some states
*ADC
*Food stamps/food banks
*TANF/LIIF – child care programs
*Back to work programs
*Welfare
*Breakfast and lunch discounts at schools
*Church assistance
*WIC
*Medicaid
*ALLKIDS
*US Patient Assistance Program
*Pregnant Women’s Medicaid
(thank you Gymmy for compiling some of the programs!)
I’m not commenting as to whether these programs are enough or not, just listing them. And some are not available to the working poor.
So, given these things, what are some things that poor people could do to elevate their positions? Or what other things? In other words, what would work to eliminate poverty?
Raise The Poverty Level?
Raise The Poverty Level?
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I don’t think you could ever eliminate poverty completely. A simple fact of life is that some people have more than others. Eliminating poverty begins, by many accounts, with the individual. I am considered middle class, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t have the same opportunities to become rich. Unless your born into money, people have to work hard to get what they have. And even those born into it, someone in their family tree had to work hard for it.
I don’t begrudge someone that has more money than me. Maybe they made better life choices than I did. There is no denying that some have an easier time than others to make money. But to that end, perhaps offering people more tools could be a good start.
For instance, my wife is a computer instructor for the state that offers free classes to low income and unemployed individuals to teach them computer skills so that they can be more competitive in the work place. Classes generally run about six weeks and will start with 30 students. The students do not have to pay a dime for these classes. However, by the end of the six weeks, they usually graduate only 10 to 15 students. The others have dropped out or have been removed from the class due to lack of attendance. It is their individual responsibility to finish the class. Those that do finish are even assisted with job placement.
You can’t get out of poverty if your not even trying.
First of all, poverty cannot and will not be eliminated.
It’s growing by leaps and bounds, with the policies pursued by the administration.
In case you hadn’t noticed, they are bailing out the fatcats on Wall Street, with tax dollars from poor and middle class Americans, which makes us poorer. Tax levels on local, state and federal levels always go up, prices have gone up on energy and all commodities, and everyone is poorer as a result..
We have a government that has been overspending for the past eight years, piling up the biggest deficits of any country in history, without regard for the future. This will have to be paid eventually, and guess who gets the bills?
Poverty is increasing, and our wonderful government is trying to get more and more and more money out of us, to give away to their cronies, to foreign governments, Haliburton, foreign wars, and they have no intentions of stopping.
Sooner or later, something’s got to give, and someday the American taxpayers will decide that enough’s enough, and there will be sweeping changes—and I hope it’s soon.