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How is poverty best eliminated?

What of the following does the best for eliminating poverty in the world?


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Here's an idea that I think people on the left and right can support: basic income. It would eliminate welfare programs and replace them with a direct cash transfer to every American with no exceptions. I recommend everyone who has the time should read up on it but if there is enough interest I'll assemble a big long post summarizing basic income.

A book for you
 
Which is exactly why means tested welfare is the least effective way of reducing poverty.

We are actually training some segments of our society to feel entitled, and also to not strive for a higher income because they will lose freebie benefits if they do achieve a higher income.

Amen.
 
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.
 
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Corporate CEOs have no responsibility toward the poor at all, they have a responsibility to their shareholders.

And you are very wrong right there. That's the problem with greed. It makes people blind. What we do effects others. And what corporate CEOs do has an effect on others. What the poor do has an effect on others. If corporate CEOs don't have a sense of civic responsibility instilled into them, then they become simply greedy monsters whose job is to extract as much from the working classes for the sake of the aggrandizement of the rich. It's nothing wrong with making money, but it should be accompanied by a sense of responsibility to the community as well, and that includes thinking about and ensuring that the types of things that will help lift people out of poverty are in place. IF they and others in positions of power and leadership don't do that, they we all have to suffer the negative effects that the poor will have on society such as crime.

You act like there's something wrong with greed. There is not. Everyone is greedy. Everyone should be greedy. It's how people get ahead.

I'm not jut acting like it, there is something wrong with it. And although it is indeed a part of human nature, just like lust and anger, it must be controlled. The problem is that it makes people blind and very cruel. When you have a bunch of blind and cruel people in the world, you get all kinds of conflict. People will bomb innocent people so that they can usurp the resources of their land without a second thought because of the influence of greed. Angry, malicious people like bin Laden are the by products. Hell that's what's wrong with it. And guess what? Greed makes people so stupid, they cannot see this.

Because it's not from the top down, it's from the bottom up.

What in the world you are talking about? I am talking about leadership coming from the top down. What successful organization in the world that does anything substantial has leadership that comes from the bottom up? That is total rubbish.

We need to provide opportunities, which the poor already have, they simply misuse and ignore those opportunities and raise their children to misuse and ignore those opportunities.

If you say the poor already have them then why do you say we need to provide them? That is contradictory. That said, you are right, we need to provide opportunities. That was my point. We need to ensure that people have equal opportunity to better their condition.

You cannot force anyone to succeed. The poor have a culture which teaches them to fail. It is the job of the poor to change their culture.

No you cannot force anyone to succeed. But only a moron would ignore the historical facts that clearly show that greedy leadership played a role in creating the conditions that led to the type of culture that the poor are currently victimized by. Therefore leadership has a responsibility to do something about it. You are right, the poor have responsibility as well. But my point is this, they do not bear the sole responsibility. Those in positions of leadership and with power in society bear part of the responsibility as well. To merely shift all of the blame onto the poor is simply an excuse and is an glaring example of exactly the type of lack of responsibility that the poor are accused of.
 
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Wow. Why do I always get myself into this stuff? Hell, I need to be figuring out how to make some more money!!! :lamo
 
The last however many centuries of human history tend to suggest that it is freeing up the economic abilities of the individual.

Right. there was no poverty back them. It was called survival and a lot did not.

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This is how...

We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.”[3] People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.

Among these are:
The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education.
 
Right. there was no poverty back them. It was called survival and a lot did not.

images

Indeed. Famine was common throughout the ancient world. Aren't we grateful that we were born in an epoch which featured respect for individual rights and limited government, that we may flourish. More people have been lifted out of poverty in the past handful of decades by free trade than were lifted out in the previous handful of centuries. :) A miracle on Earth, if you will.
 
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