Most poor children perform very poorly in school and in many large cities, the drop out rate is well above 50%. They go, they just don't take it seriously.
They perform poorly because poor, sorry leadership doesn't really give a damn about them and instead of putting resources into the types of things that would motivate them and tailoring they way they are educated so that they can be effectively reached, they would rather sit back, wallow in their greed, enrich themselves and point the finger and say how stupid, lazy and unproductive they are. They want to talk about others taking responsibility, and it is true that people need to do that, however they don't want to take responsibility for their poor leadership and lack of being able to produce results, even though they control such vast resources. Such greedy people have had a cash cow in the Federal Reserve for one hundred years now with which they could have solved many problems such as education. But no, what they want to do is wallow in their greed and take pride in their condescension.
That said, of course the poor share a portion of the blame. But that does not remove the share of the blame that belongs to leadership. Hell, that's what good leadership is supposed to be about. Producing results, not shifting blame onto others.
Sure, then there are plenty who don't work at all.
That's right. And some of them are not working because their job has been shipped overseas.
The reason they have to work two or three jobs to survive is because they never got an education when they had an opportunity, they made horrible life decisions and ended up with minimal marketable work skills. You'd think that these parents would pass along these life lessons to their children but generation after generation, these people make the same mistakes over and over and over. Why is that?
While it may be true in some cases that it is the result of poor decisions, it is also true that there are people who are educated that work more than one job because things are simply expensive now. Hell it cost me more that 700 dollars just to get a brake job done of my car.
With respect to passing lessons on to children, if you start over doing this personal responsibility stuff and start throwing the parents in prison for years over petty offenses, how the hell do you expect them to teach the children anything if they are in prison?
That's a nice statement, but why do you think so?
I just told you why. It's about like you say, taking responsibility. If you are going to assume a leadership role and say you know the answer to the problems, then we should expect to see results. We have had this personal reponsibility stuff and throwing people in prison for small crimes. It hasn't done jack. That's because it's too one dimensional. But under the influence of greed, leadership can't see that. What they really need as an excuse for the failure of their leadership. They have found it in bashing the poor.
Sure, elected officials have a responsibility to provide an opportunity for the poor to better themselves, they are not responsible for forcing the poor to take those opportunities seriously.
You are right, they are not responsible for the poor taking the opportunities seriously. But they are responsible for producing results. And producing results does not mean passing the responsibility entirely to those in poverty. It means doing the right type of things to make sure that people can get out of poverty. That means ensuring that there is a education system that can reach those who are poor and ensuring that they have equal opportunities that they know about and can take advantage of.