Poverty Developed Over Centuries In America?

"Poverty Developed Over Centuries in America"? Did you catch that line from Obama's speech tonight?

What exactly is he saying there? That only Blacks are in poverty as a result of racial injustice going back to the Founding Fathers? Is he simply dismissing the catastrophic consequences of Johnson's Great Society? Or is he actually suggesting that, at it's root, Capitalism is a predatory economic system?

Don't look for a straight answer anytime, soon.

Comments

[rwilymz]

Poverty is a constant in the human condition; it doesn't "develop". Escape from poverty ... THAT develops.

And escape from poverty requires either the ability to subjugate all those around you and taking for yourself any scrap of extra they might have -- which is the preferred method through the 10,000 years of human civilization [and pre- same], or full participation in a capitalist economy, which is the only system ever invented by humans which creates wealth and attempts to distribute it fairly. Which is to say: in accordance with participation.

Merely *existing* in a capitalist economy is not enough; you must participate.

And participation requires education and application of that education. After that it doesn't matter what you do: sweep floors, manage billion-dollar outfits ... you'll escape poverty.

[joeb]

I seem to remember something from the bible that goes "The poor will always be with you".
Well maybe not here in DC where the workers stole 50 million dollars of tax money from the Property Tax Office.
And they aint doing to bad on the government payroll and dole either.

[templar knight]

Great comment, rw. Every liberal should be forced to read it, as what you've said in two short paragraphs is more of an education in economics than 99% of our students get in school.

Of course, the average liberal thinks everyone is born into riches, and that something must have been stolen from people who aren't rich. It must be their dignity, their pride and their humanity. All stolen by the greedy capitalist. This was always my favorite quote from Winston Churchill:

"Capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings, whereas communism is the equal sharing of misery."

Liberals sure love misery.

[Lala]

I've heard that African-Americans were better off financially, in general, before the 1960's.
Here's an example: http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761578896_11/oklahoma.html

[Wahoo WIllie Sez:]

Would someone point to proof that only blacks are poor? I need the proof to take around to some of the neighbors who will be quite surprised to find this out. According to everything you research, the majority of poor are white.

[templar knight]

"I've heard that African-Americans were better off financially, in general, before the 1960s."

I really think there is something to this. My mother grew up in Arkansas during the 1950s and was quite poor, as poor as any black person. You have to remember that this was a time prior to welfare, at least for the most part, and people were generally married, or lived in family groups, where they received support from each other.

And this still holds true today. The single most important factor determining poverty in this country, whether it be black or white, is whether a woman is married. There is very little difference between the incomes of black and white people who are married. It is the proliferation of unwed mothers in America that has caused so much poverty, whether that mother be black or white.