[bkholdem]

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If not, I will tell you that a lot of what is meant to 'help' does harm in many cases. I work on the front lines full time. I think I am in a better postion to discuss the issue intelligently than a lot of people here, at least as it applies to 'helping' the US poor.

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My reply was actually not directed at you. But either way, I'm not talking about what kind of help works, and what doesn't. I'm talking about the mentality that many people have (especially on 2+2 judging from a lot of responses to this thread) of blaming poor people for their state of poverty. As if every poor person is poor solely because of their own laziness/irresponsibility/lack of work ethic/etc. It simply isn't true - and anyone who thinks it is really needs to examine their own prejudices towards the poor.

I'm certainly not about to propose a solution to a problem as complex as poverty. But seeing the poor as fellow human beings, and not some alien "them" who must have done something to deserve their fate, is a good start.

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I agree with you. However those who view themselves as 'understanding' or 'sympathetic' to the poor or whatever have their own predjuices as well. Clear examples of this can be found in this thread. Go look at my other posts in this thread and then the replies. It is clear that one guy who replied made a whole lot of assumptions about my views of the poor, etc which are simply not true. Did he ask me questions to seek clarification about my views? Did he challenge the claims I made? No. He made a bunch of assumptions that are simply not true.

All of the things I stated in the earlier posts in this thread about income of poor people in shelters and the shelters emptying out at the beginning of the month when people get their checks and returning a few days later broke are true. Of course they are generalizations but they are true. From this people infer that I 'blame the poor' etc. I simply stated observable reality. I did not berate that behavior. I stated what is observable. Some people choose to see them as lazy leeches and others choose to see them as victims who have no choice. Both postions are wrong IMO.