The Journey Street Newspaper

Do You want to have something You wrote published? Get involved; become a contributor or a reporter. Get your articles, recipes, artwork , poetry, etc. published. Set an example for your community. Contact us at 817-902-7911 or contact by E-Mail at
thejourney.streetpaper@gmail.com

Saturday, August 27, 2011

Conservative Columnist: Social Problems Are Caused By “Depravity Of The Poor”





Photo credit: Matthew Woitunski via wikimedia


One of the underlying threads of conservative thought is that the rich are inherently hard working and “earn” their good fortune, and the poor almost always are poor due to some sort of moral lacking.  It’s the Horatio Alger, “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” mentality run a muck — the idea that with enough effort and a pure heart, every person will eventually be successful, and if you are not, it must be a sign of weakness of character.
This is the assumption that makes the right believe that most people on welfare, on unemployment, using food stamps or other government aid must be lazy, or lacking in courage, determination or pride.  No one “needs” government assistance because they should be able to care for themselves, and a “handout” just makes them try even less.
It’s usually not discussed publicly in so many words, even though that’s what many believe.  But David French of the National Review Online doesn’t have any qualms about coming right out and voicing it himself.
It is simply a fact that our social problems are increasingly connected to the depravity of the poor. If an American works hard, completes their education, gets married, and stays married, then they will rarely — very rarely — be poor. At the same time, poverty is the handmaiden of illegitimacy, divorce, ignorance, and addiction. As we have poured money into welfare, we’ve done nothing to address the behaviors that lead to poverty while doing all we can to make that poverty more comfortable and sustainable.
So there are almost no “educated poor”?  Rarely any “married poor”?  And if the poor always fall into one of these categories of “depravity” that need to be addressed, why are conservatives so anxious to cut the means of addressing them, such as public education, access to affordable colleges, an ability to obtain birth control so that marriage can be saved for those who really are committed to being lifelong partners and not just people who happened to accidentally get pregnant?
Does “depravity” lead to poverty, or is it more often lack of livable wage jobs?  Instead of fighting to cut off the programs that allegedly sustain poverty and make it comfortable, how about focusing on increasing minimum wage and employee rights in the workplace?
The only depravity I’ve been seeing lately hasn’t been coming from the poor.  It’s the callousness of man to his fellow man.

1 comment:

  1. Hey Cowboy, first and foremost, I'd like to apologize to you for not taking time out to click on your name for years as you posted some of the most valuable comments I've ever seen over at GFB & elsewhere for that matter.

    Secondly, speaking from the heart as a documented (VOTS) victim of the system (Harris County's rogue CJ system to be precise) and as someone that's spent a couple years off & on classified as 'homeless', I wiped away tears as I read the posting above as it flashed me back to a reality, I personally experienced.

    If anyone on the planet has an excuse for not having anything good or positive to say about law enforcement in general - I'd be one of those individuals spewing hatred, if it weren't for the compassion of a deputy sheriff that took one look at my documents and the rest is history. When he gave me the keys to his Mustang and apartment and $20 bucks to get some groceries, I lost all of the pent up anger I had and cried like a lil baby once in the privacy of the apt. Another deputy took time to make sure I had ample decade appropriate clothing and shoes that made it possible to succeed in an interview. A judge learned about it through the grapevine and before you know it I was enrolled in a private investigation school with ambitions to rescue others from their false arrests that were allowed to morph into wrongful convictions via: the Texas TapOut.

    In a way to pay it forward, I've done things for others in hopes that it helped them get back on track. In an ongoing effort to do just that, I'm going to donate a trailer load of items that you can utilize in your endeavors assisting others in their time of need. Maybe you can create a National Garage Sale Day for the Homeless & others will hopefully follow with good deeds and donations. Let me know how I can get these items to you in our email. In the mean time, you & yours sir, are Public Heroes and I fully plan on celebrating & sharing your endeavors with the public at large.

    Thank you for all that you do on behalf of others.

    PNG of Texas
    Team member –
    Thomas R. Griffith
    theteam@projectnotguilty.com

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for your comment, I am always willing to hear what others have to say.

I remain your humble servant - I am The Homeless Cowboy