Thirty-three million Americans - five and a half million children - are mired in poverty, living in a hell from which there is no escape, and it is all the fault of the wealthy citizens. Or is it? Any look at the poverty in America will show a reasonable reader that the facts say otherwise. While a typical human may feel sorrow for the poor and look to blame others, a realist looks at the poor and gives credit where it is due. The poor have done it to themselves. .
Is poverty pre-ordained? I think not. Any married couple working full time at minimum wage would earn more then double the amount stated as the poverty line. Even with two children they would be above the poverty line. However, most of the poor families in America are headed by a single mother. While divorce and the death of a father may cause some of these cases, the majority happen because people have children and then don't get married. And face it, getting pregnant isn't that hard to avoid. For the most part, it is a conscious decision made by two short-sighted individuals. Don't blame the system for the trouble the children are in - blame the mothers and fathers.
According to a NPR/Kaiser/Kennedy School Poll, the leading cause of poverty identified by both the poor (seventy-five percent) and non-poor (sixty-five percent) was drug abuse. It is not like you are walking down the street and you are struck with drug addiction; to use drugs is yet another conscious decision, often caused by peer pressure. Drug-users tend not to be very productive. They drop out of school, abandon their families, have scrapes with the law and don't hold down jobs; all to feed their growing addiction to the drugs. Would anybody be surprised that poverty is one result of drug usage? .
What is the secret for avoiding poverty? I think it is a no-brainer. Finish high school and take a job, any kind of a job. There is no excuse for not finishing high school, whether pregnancy, drugs, or simple laziness.
