The Poor: Lazy Loafers or Hard-Working Wheeler Dealers?

Continued from America's Poor: People who have made "bad choices" and "didn't work hard". 

Some say that the "New Poor", not to mention the "Old Poor", need to learn "personal responsibility" and stop sponging off of those rich "job creators". The rich job creators threaten to move all of the jobs offshore unless the poor start pulling themselves up by their bootstraps and stop sucking on the gub'mint's teat and asking for higher taxes.... 

We've been introducing some of the "New Poor" (and some of the "Old Poor" as well). We have been watching them as they suck on the government's teat while they laze on the couch.

There is nothing unusual about these stories. I personally have met all of these people, and I know enough about them to trust that their stories are basically true. There are millions of people like these people, people who came from middle class backgrounds, or people who worked themselves up from poor backgrounds, who worked, sometimes for decades, who have found themselves on the sidelines, empty and depleted, in this economy. 

Many have bright, cheery profiles on LinkedIn highlighting their current mini-business endeavors. You can't see their struggles on LinkedIn or even Facebook.

I don't know how many of these people would now fall under the official poverty level, but all of them have needed government assistance; many of them have had to move, a few have been in foreclosure, some have not had health insurance or health care, others have had utilities turned off. 

Some have had cars either break down or been booted due to parking tickets that couldn't be paid. Some with kids have qualified for the earned interest credit and/or Pell grants to get through college.

These people are of all races and ethnic backgrounds, though most of them are white. I'm not going to say which person is of what ethnicity.

I know the defenders of the rich will say that these people are exceptions; that most of the poor are content to laze around on the couch, eschew "personal responsibility", let the government take care of them, and have more kids than they can afford.

I'm sure there are poor people lazing around on the couch, but I wouldn't be surprised if they are a minority of the poor.. except for those who are seriously disabled and really can't move from that couch.

Since our family has started struggling in this recession, I have paid more attention to how the "poor" live, and, quite simply, many of them are more resourcefu­l and work harder than the still-midd­le class or the upper classes. They sell things they don't need, they scour garage sales and thrift stores, they do odd jobs, they do temp jobs, they barter, they learn how to fix things. Some seem to be constantly wheeling and dealing.

And here's a final story about someone I didn't know:

Lazy Sponger Number 6:  Disabled Wheeler Dealer

"My brother, who passed away 2 years ago, was disabled and received about 10K in Social Security a year. He did all of the above (selling stuff he didn't need, doing odd jobs, fixing stuff up, etc.). Wheeling and dealing was a way of life. Possession­s came and went with necessity. He did odd jobs as his health allowed. He cultivated friendship­s and would always help a neighbor because he knew at some point he may well need that neighbor's help. He searched thrift shops for hidden treasures, frequented yard sales, and ran many of his own yard sales.

Many of my friends and family either are poor or live right on that edge, not quite poor but not doing much more than barely getting by. This is a way of life for a large subsection of people and most others are completely unaware.”

And yet the rich will insist that they don't want to pay a dime more in taxes to support these lazy, useless deadbeats and welfare slobs.


Shame.

The Poor: Lazy, Deadbeats, Welfare Slobs?

Continued from America's Poor: Lazy, Irresponsible, Dependent?

Introduction HERE

Some say that the "New Poor", not to mention the "Old Poor", need to learn "personal responsibility".  They need to stop sponging off of those rich "job creators"!  

Meet some of the "New Poor" (and some of the "Old Poor" as well).  We're watching them sponge off of others,  show no "personal responsibility", and demonstrate how little they value money and how dependent they are on the government:

Lazy sponger Number 2:  Busy with Businesses

Another man, now in his early 60's, grew up in the "projects." He worked his way through school, got a job programming computers in the 70's and worked in IT for several decades. He did reasonably well and worked steadily. 

He had a son, but that marriage didn't last. Other family members struggled, and he was always generous with them, with his sister and his mother, in particular. He remained very involved in his son's life and always paid his child support. 

He married again and had children in the mid 90's. His wife was a college-educated professional; they bought a modest home and things were going well.

He worked during the late 90's as a consultant on several Y2K projects. After the dot.com bust and the end of the Y2K fixes, assignments became harder and harder for him to come by as many companies off shored their IT people, and as "new technologies" replaced the older technologies that he knew. 


He started a small home-based business selling insurance. He made an income and he was able to be home with his kids. Eventually his mother's health went downhill, and they took her in. Her social security check did help the family meet their bills. 


Then the recession hit. Overnight, almost all of his customers just went away. He looked for temporary or full-time work and couldn't find any. He was hired for the Census, but, after they did their background check, a 40+ year old arrest record (not a charge or a conviction) came back to haunt him. He couldn't work until it was straightened out, and by the time that happened, the Census work was over. 


Meanwhile, back in late 2009 or early 2010, his wife (now in her 50's) lost her job. She worked in a construction-related field. They are both trying to find jobs; both developing small business ideas; she's written a couple of eBooks and has a couple of online businesses going. They are trying to keep their heads above water and pay the bills. 


Grandma's dementia, however, got worse last winter and she could no longer stay in their home. She is now in a nursing home. So there went Grandma's social security check, which was helping them to pay their bills.  The wife's unemployment will run out soon, and they are desperately trying to get some income regular going before it goes away. He will soon turn 62 and will probably have to take early social security. He's still completely healthy and he would much rather have a job. 



Lazy Sponger Number 3:  She Left her Bootstraps on the Bus

A young woman had two children out of wedlock at a young age. It created a life of struggle for her, but she vowed to work hard and not pass a life of struggle on to her kids. She worked for a large retailer, but pay slightly above minimum wage doesn't go that far when you have two kids to raise. 


She realized she would have to go back to school to get some kind of skill, and she went to school on the weekends and worked during the week.


More here:  Lazy Sponger Number 3:  She Left Her Bootstraps on the Bus

America's Poor: Lazy, Irresponsible, Dependent?

Update 9/21/2012:  This series of articles was written in August 2011, over a year before Mitt Romney's infamous comments about 47% of the American people who don't pay taxes, don't take personal responsibility, and who are victims became public.  We start with a study that shows that the rich are indeed different from the rest of us, and jump to stories of people, most of them college educated, of all races and ethnic backgrounds, who have found themselves now poor or near poor.. and how they are coping.

Verbal Class Warfare has started in the U.S., and it's not pretty.  

From Sott.net

Verbal class warfare has actually been around for awhile but it's getting more heated as the issues surrounding taxes and government spending become more heated. "The poor are lazy, they don't work hard; they eschew "personal responsibility", they've learned to be dependent." That's a fairly common line from those who believe that the well-off already carry too much of the burden.

A recent study seems to suggest that the rich are different:  That they are less empathetic, less altruistic, and generally more selfish.

From an article about the study on the rich from MSNBC:

Now psychologist and social scientist Dacher Keltner says the rich really are different, and not in a good way: Their life experience makes them less empathetic, less altruistic, and generally more selfish.

In fact, he says, the philosophical battle over economics, taxes, debt ceilings and defaults that are now roiling the stock market is partly rooted in an upper class "ideology of self-interest"

In other words, rich people are more likely to think about themselves. “They think that economic success and political outcomes, and personal outcomes, have to do with individual behavior, a good work ethic,” said Keltner, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley.

In the comments to this article, someone objects: 

"...and this isn't true? Individual behavior and a good work ethic don't help one succeed? I don't see anything wrong with that.

When you are given something that you didn't earn (welfare), of course you don't place the same value on money that someone that worked hard and earned it does.

The way I read this, the wealthier are driven toward personal responsibility, and the lower class looks to others to be responsible for them.

Maybe if the lower class started learning a little personal responsibility we wouldn't have this gap."

Could he be right?  Is the problem that the poor, both the "New Poor" and the "Old Poor" need to learn "personal responsibility"?  Perhaps they do need to stop sponging off of those rich "job creators"  and "earn their money"?  

Here's the face of the "New Poor" (and some of the "Old Poor"). 


Let's watch them sponge off of others,  show no "personal responsibility", and demonstrate how little they value money:

Lazy Sponger Number 1:   Pizzas don't Pay. 

A man now in his late 30's grew up with a welfare mom who was ill and rarely worked during his childhood. He struggled as a young man, dropped out of high school but eventually got a GED. He worked a series of low-wage jobs, but did take classes and managed to get a real estate license. He wasn't particularly successful in real estate, unfortunately, and left the business. 

Finally he discovered he had a knack for computers. He took some classes, and created a small business for himself with 5 or 6 regular small-business clients. More here:


Lazy Spongers Continued here:  Pizzas Don't Pay