POVERTY IS A FEATURE NOT A BUG

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The world will never recover until poverty is seen not as a character flaw, but as a failure of society itself to provide for the most vulnerable.
- They wouldn't be vulnerable if they just overcame their own biology and lifetime of trauma. Its that simple, they arent trying hard enough.
  
  What do you mean by "overcame their own biology"?
  
  I think he's trying to make a joke by appealing to the absurdity, like pulling yourself up by the boot straps. Literally impossible.
  Though Poe's Law and general stupidity are up lately, so...
  
  Literally people born with or contracting disabilities that leave them permanently destitute due to you not being able to eat or house yourself without work you can't do because your disabled.
  
  And because of how disability works in the US, if they want care they're legally forbidden from ever having money so...
  
  The simple fact of the matter is that most things most people do are simply input -> biology happens -> output. Breaking that hardwired process that happens in the background for every miniscule decision you make is the basis of like, every kind of therapy, self-help, meditation routine, etc.
  
  They're being satirical. They're saying it's virtually impossible to not succumb to poverty if you have disabilities, trauma, or racial prejudice working against you.
  
  Also historical and/or generational poverty.
  
  I'd file that under trauma. If there was no trauma caused by extreme poverty like; parent was a sexworker; watching a parent lose it all; emotional neglect; physical neglect; history of incarceration; generational drug abuse, it would be more unlikely they would succumb to homelessness. That said, you are right.
  
  Generational poverty is also historically about racism. Now, that's changing but it's changing more because it's just getting harder to get out of poverty than it is because there's less racism...
  
  I do not disagree.
  
  I get your point, and while there is certainly a subset of people who are suffering through no fault of their own, there are plenty of people who are lazy and/or made terrible decisions. Lumping them all together like you are doesn't help the situation. Those who want help should absolutely be helped. Those who don't should not be allowed to ruin it for the rest of us.
  
  No one is on the street because they are lazy. That is ignorance.
  Also, what exactly are they ruining for the rest of us? What upward mobility are they keeping me from? Are you suggesting someone living in a tent or shelter ruins your???Propery value? Urban view? Existence?
  Sounds like to me there is a certain pettiness you hold on to and letting that go means you actually have to accept the humanity of people less fortunate than yourself. That also sounds like an illness you should rid yourself of because it's rottng away at you.
  No one chooses consciousness. We are all coming in from the cold. We have this one chance to peer into the nature of the universe. Except, some are more concerned with the length of small little plants out in front of their house.
  
  No one is on the street because they are lazy. What an entirely ignorant and stupid comment. Come to the West coast idiot. I can show you plenty of people that are lazy ass mother fuckers among the homeless. Not all, but enough.
  
  No lazy person wants to be homeless. The amount of stress and anxiety cause by being homeless would crush you. To be lazy a person needs shelter, food and clean water, clean cloths, and good health. Homelessness is about survival.
  
  You're always going to have someone looking to gain from the system. The thing is, I don't care. Most people want a sense of fulfillment more than they want anything else, and that usually comes from being productive. Not always in the "get a job, earn money" way, but in the "I'm going to create, in a way that makes me happy" sense. Unfortunately, for a lot of people, even finding that thing that fulfillment is such an upward battle because it requires a ton of resources. Time, energy, money. Things the destitute don't have. Let the few be lazy, fuck it you'll never get rid of lazy from society, stop trying, it's just hurting the regular man. Focus on bringing the bottom up, and the whole of society benefits.
  
  There are also those who make bad decisions and are lazy but have a lot of money and power regardless. Being lazy/making terrible decisions does not equal poor; same as being hard working/making good decisions.
  The system at this stage is just geared towards making the poor poorer and the rich richer. E.g. making people pay lots of money to stay healthy rather than give people equal opportunity, making good education only accessible to the rich by making it prohibitively expensive, the wage divide between an employee and a CEO, family trusts and associated taxes etc.
  
  I'd guess absolutely every person in a shit situation wants help. No one WANTS to be homeless, destitute, and addicted. The problem is, that for a lot of the worst off people in the world, that's pretty much all they have. Sometimes, the only source of any light in someone's life is a chemically induced high. Who am I to tell someone in that situation that they can't do one of the few things that makes life kind of ok?
  This kind of thing is a failing of society, not the person, no matter how deep you drill. Each and every one of the people in this shit needs help, not judgement, not to get clean, not to make money. Start with providing actual help, a home, food, mental and physical healthcare. It doesn't have to be luxurious,just safe.The rest will follow naturally.
  
  "The point" was actually a joke.
  
  We all have our limits. Some people seem to be tougher than others. There are things people go through that I would last maybe two weeks before killing myself. When analyzing these situations it's hard to balance compassion and being reasonably critical.
  
  You're going to get downvoted into oblivion for speaking the truth. Lemmy is full or libritards who are just as bad as the far right nutjobs. Both don't live in reality.
  
  What is your reality that is so much more salient and rational?
- My freaking God. I volunteered at a local charity org a bit this summer and one of the first things they told us in orientation was that "most people think that poverty is about what people lack. But it's actually a mindset." That pissed me the heck off not gonna lie.
  
  Was it a religious charity org? Those ones are often condescending assholes like that..
  
  It was, unfortunately, yeah.
  
  There is no hate like Christian love.
  
  Yeah, you should have told the homeless charity you just joined the truth about homelessness!
  
  It was a religious charity org. They weren't spreading or accepting any evidence-based truth.
- That's the ticket. The most hardworking people I've ever met are also some of the poorest.

370 comments