I tried asking some friends to do this, but most of the responses I got were INCREDIBLY ignorant. I don't feel my professor would appreciate a lot of what I got.

I understand that this may turn into a debate, but I'm not looking for that. Have fun if you'd like, but this is just a survey.

Here goes!

Any answer is ok and no answer is wrong, as long as it is honest. If you don't know, please state that. Please let me know your occupation and age. It's not a debate, just a survey.

1 - Where do the poor come from?
2 - Will there always be poor people?
3 - What advice would you give to the poor?
4 - What should the government do about the poor?
5 - Who is at fault/Who is to blame?

Thanks in advance folks! You can also PM the answers if you'd prefer.

Just so you know, I come from a place where you get a check from the government when you don't work that is the equivalent of working 30 hour per week at the minimum wage. If you have kids, it's almost double. The only requirement is that you don't work and don't live with someone who does. I also work at a place where we give informative sessions to people who just signed up to receive the check. I would give them information about where to look for jobs and the response I got was: Why would I work when I make more money at home than working. So yeah, my reply might be biaised

1 - Where do the poor come from?
Part is because of a lack of education. Part is because of the government. Part is because people were extremly unlucky, were born in disfuntional families, exposed to drugs and violence or had health problems that forced them to stop working or studying which led to being poor.
2 - Will there always be poor people?
I think so unfortunatly. When I look at countries that tried communism so that everyone would be equal and there would be no poor people it didn't work because of human's nature. We were made to always want more food/money and I don't think we are ready to give up some of our wealth to help the less fortunate. Some people are but since not EVERYONE is there will always be poor people.
3 - What advice would you give to the poor?
It depends what ''kind'' of poor. Because in my opinion there are different kinds of poors. The lazy ones. I have no advice. They know what to do already and they are just not ready to work. Other kind of poors (they want to work but struggle because of a mental illness, drug addiction, health problem, lack of education) Try your hardest and we will support you.

4 - What should the government do about the poor?
Take away the check of people who are fully capable of working and CHOOSE not to. Make them work for their check. Give the rest of the money to people with disabilities and their children. ONe time, when postal service was on strike, people had to go get their check at an office. Most people did not even go get it because they were so lazy. I swear. It was pathetic.

5 - Who is at fault/Who is to blame?
Our province does not put enough emphasis on basic education and it has a huge role in poverty. We also have the tendency to believe that the province owes us everything. There is not enough emphasis on ''taking your future in your own hands'' or ''investing in yourself''.

BloodyDanceToes wrote:

I tried asking some friends to do this, but most of the responses I got were INCREDIBLY ignorant. I don't feel my professor would appreciate a lot of what I got.

I understand that this may turn into a debate, but I'm not looking for that. Have fun if you'd like, but this is just a survey.

Here goes!

Any answer is ok and no answer is wrong, as long as it is honest. If you don't know, please state that. Please let me know your occupation and age. It's not a debate, just a survey.

1 - Where do the poor come from?
2 - Will there always be poor people?
3 - What advice would you give to the poor?
4 - What should the government do about the poor?
5 - Who is at fault/Who is to blame?

Thanks in advance folks! You can also PM the answers if you'd prefer.

1. They poor come from everywhere it could be a family that lost a job, someone born into poverty, someone unable to afford their lifestyle, and someone who is too lazy to work.

2. Yes there always will be. No matter what anything could happen to anyone like a death of a family member who is financially supporting you, loss of a job, teen parents, and the eldery because they can't work. Also people with medical issues that cannot keep up with the cost.

3. Use resources out there to either receive assistance or see if you can qualify for grants to go to college or take odd jobs.

4. Regulate who is qualifying for assistance and making sure they actually need it. Also give them opportunities for work.

5. The government and the people. The government is helping people that aren't really in need. There are people that COULD AND SHOULD be working but choose not to.

It's really disgusting especially in the area I live that so many people are on assistance whether it be welfare or medicaid. There is nothing wrong with some of these people that they can't work. I've seen with my eyes people at grocery stores in designer clothes buy fancier food then we could afford and receive it all for free then drive out in the BRAND NEW car. My boyfriend worked at a pharmacy and would say most of the medicaid patients shouldn't be on it. They would drive up in their $40,000 car or they were people who had a million kids and didn't work or drug dealers getting free medications to sell on the street.

As for medicaid it's disgusting that all you have to do is get knocked up to qualify. I know a ton of people with legit medical problems and can't afford doctors or medicine because they don't have insurance and they can't get medicaid because they aren't knocked up.

I'm all for helping people and welfare is SUPPOSED to help you get back on your feet not a resource because you are lazy. We were on welfare when I was younger because my mom was a single mom without family. But she took the opportunities and made herself a better person. She went to college and has been a nurse for years. I really think that people's view on the poor isn't always correct because they've never lived through it.

Assuming that “poor” means “below the poverty line” – which is, of course, an arbitrary judgment that varies based on location:


1 - Where do the poor come from?
Poverty perpetuates poverty. If your parents are poor, it is highly probable that you will be poor, as well. This is due to socioeconomic factors – poor areas will have worse schools, kids will turn to crime instead of healthy alternatives (if there are any extracurricular provided), and so on. {Studies support this, as I’m sure you know.} Poverty leads to poverty. A poorly educated teen who never received sex ed gets pregnant and is unable to finish her education and is thus unable to earn enough to provide for her child, who then grows up in a poor area receiving the same poor education… and so on.

2 - Will there always be poor people?
Yes.

3 - What advice would you give to the poor?
Utilize government programs. Keep your kids in school and in extracurriculars. Read up on personal finance, stick to a strict budget, save and look for [legal] ways to earn extra income.
…same advice I would give to anyone else, really!

4 - What should the government do about the poor?
It is not the government’s responsibility to “do” anything, necessarily. “The poor” are not a problem in and of themselves. In a non-communist society, you’re going to have the more wealthy and the less wealthy. It’s kind of offensive to even look at “the poor” as being a problem, really.

Federally, I believe that enough is provided to the poor, although a welfare-to-work program needs to be created that actually makes sense and works. (As is, the more you earn the less welfare you will receive – which is actually an incentive to work less. Yes, that actually happens, it’s not just a myth.) Better childcare should be provided for working mothers as well (though this would be state, not national, government).

To break an endemic socioeconocultural cycle would take a lot of work and drastic change that is probably beyond the scope of the current U.S. government, and would be a lot more detailed than I care to get into. I think that education would probably be the most important thing to work on.


5 - Who is at fault/Who is to blame?
No one and no one. That’s just life. Life is not fair. Nature is not fair. Some people are well off, some people are worse off, that’s just the way it is. There will always be somebody at the bottom. It does not mean that anything is wrong or that anything needs to be fixed. It’s just the way the universe works.

Ultimately I believe that the individual is responsible for his or her own choices in life. “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink” – just because you grow up poor, in a bad area, with a lousy education, rife with gang violence and drug dealers, doesn’t mean you will wind up exactly like everyone around you. Yes, it is going to be harder work to get out of that than it would for a kid born to someone else, but everyone’s got problems. You can be born without legs, or blind, but raging at the world about it or trying to cast blame won't get you anywhere. Americans are not promised equal status or a level playing field, but we are promised to have the equal opportunity to become whatever we want.

1 - Where do the poor come from? In sum: lack of opportunities. NOte that this does not mean that people who are poor do not seek out opportunities or are "lazy" as some people like to say, but that there are not opportunities available to them for a multitude of reasons: lack of transport, lack of childcare, lack of education, lack of social support, lack of health, lack of wealth and other assets (not income).
2 - Will there always be poor people? Yes! There always have been and always will be. Poverty is cyclical.
3 - What advice would you give to the poor? Advise your children to stay in school as long as possible. Don't be ashamed to use government assistant programs or other assistance programs (ie. through churches or community sponsored things).
4 - What should the government do about the poor? Continue to provide assistance for those in need and especially focus on programs that aid children as directly as possible. (In my state we have a state program that provides health insurance to children who don't qualify for medicaid but don't have other health insurance). For individual states, research what is preventing people from becoming employed and take steps to solve it, ie. childcare for the low-income population.
5 - Who is at fault/Who is to blame? I think in some ways wealth distribution (Are you in the United States) does have a major impact. I personally (but know others may not agree) think that it is wrong to have a such a small percentage of people holding so much wealth. I think we will ALWAYS have "poor people" but I think that we, as a society, could have a much more evenly divided pyramid...



I'm 23 years old and a medical student. (Although I was a sociology student in undergrad and took a class on this topic...although I have clearly forgotten much of it )

Thank you so much for the responses guys. This is exactly what I was hoping for!

1 - Where do the poor come from?

Poverty comes from a host of things; lack of education, unemploymenet/tight job market, irresponsible money management, basically insufficient funds for one's living costs.

2 - Will there always be poor people?

Those who are unhappy in their mind will always be poor.

3 - What advice would you give to the poor?

Appreciate everything that you do have, work hard, be kind. Things can and will always change.

4 - What should the government do about the poor?

The government should be responsible for changing the way US funds are distributed to make absolutely sure that no money is being wasted that is needed elsewhere. For example, giving money back to public education (instead of budget CUTS) vs money to fund incarceration.

5 - Who is at fault/Who is to blame?
I don't think blame should be placed on anyone but oneself. To point fingers at an other limits one's ability to make changes for oneself and personally I find pointing fingers does nothing but make me feel victimized and helpless, instead of actively working to change my situation.

And I am a 22 year old recent college graduate in cultural arts.

1 - Where do the poor come from? Everywhere???

2 - Will there always be poor people? No society is perfect, and every political system has some good ideals and some bad ideals. As long as there is money, there will be rich people, and there will be poor people. The capitalist idea that you earn what you work for is fair enough, assuming that everyone works equally, then there won't be poor people. The communist idea that everyone does what they can, and the money is divided equally, well that's a nice theory but I'm sure the hard-workers will eventually get fed up of looking after the lazy sods that have realised that just because they can doesn't mean they will. I could never become involved in politics because I'm all for all these lovely theories, but nothing's perfect in practice, and it would upset me.

3 - What advice would you give to the poor? Well really that just depends on their reasons for being poor! The poverty line is different in every country, I remember hearing that in Scotland (quite a few years ago, so it's probably gone up) it was below £7000 per year was considered "poor" in the sense that someone earning that wage cannot afford to feed and clothe themselves, or to purchase societal norms (such as a standard television set) whereas £7000 per year would definitely not be considered poor in some of the more underdeveloped countries of the world. I would most likely say that nothing comes for free, and though some things are paid for by those other than yourself, please try to be respectful of everyone who is giving you a hand, and work to do the best you can to provide for yourself. If applicable, but if they have no chance of learning skills that would provide them with an income, then I'd not patronise them with any advice.

4 - What should the government do about the poor? I've already written a little about politics and how ideals are just lovely, and how I shouldn't get into politics. Personally, I'm a fan of middle of the road socialism, but the flaws in the UK with socialism because of how manipulative people can work the system offends my beliefs. I think it would be great if they could sort the poor by choice from the poor by circumstance, and only help the latter out of the gutter, the former, I would advocate providing them with basic essentials (government approved diet, government regulation clothing etc, so they can't choose how to spend the money they didn't earn) until they proved that they were working to better themselves.

5 - Who is at fault/Who is to blame? For the poor??? Everyone and no one. Blaming does not solve problems, if you see a problem, you should fix it rather than try to find out who created it to ask them to fix it. Don't waste time like that!

I'm currently working as a waitress, but I am a graduate, and I'm 25. I didn't read any of the other responses before posting this. Usually I read everything to try to see if I'm on the same page as other people for things, but I don't think this thread's appropriate for that.

I like how I mentioned equal opportunity and right after Uber comes in talking about lack of opportunities...

^Heart, it's actually a really interesting idea on how it's both, and neither, and a huge mess all at once.

Also, I hate this class, but getting perspective outside of it is awesome. You guys have no idea how much you're touching on a lot of debates I've had in class. =)