re: #75 albusteve

…there will always be poor people, people that choose squalor over substance…children with no functioning parents who line up for their eternal handout…

How about those who don’t choose squalor over substance but are forced into it by an accident of birth, whether that be race, disability, a dysfunction like autism, abuse, drug addiction or something as equally as debilitating?

Do you really believe most poor people are poor because they choose to be?

I don’t know what reality you live in but getting ahead in life doesn’t just take a little determination combined with some spit and elbow grease for everyone. The idea that anyone can do well in this society if they’d only try a little harder is pure bull shit.

The idea that a few people down and out roaming our communities doesn’t detract from everyone’s life in society is naive.

Attempting to elevate people from poverty affects all of us, it lowers violence, it lowers crime, and it lowers drug and other addictions all of which cost us financially and emotionally.