Reply #22: strawmen 101 [View All]

[sgxnk]

hey, you make your choices. tv's are NOT a necessity. i lived without one for several years (about 4) and I lived without cable for about 8. and renting a widescreen HDTV for big $$ instead of spending 20-40 bucks for one at goodwill is a CHOICE

look. i've BEEN THERE. i've been in poverty.

i *am* saying tv's are a luxury.

sorry.

food is a necessity

utilities

a roof over your head

but not TV, and not an expensive couch rented from rent-a-center or the like

i am NOT saying that being poor is a choice

I *am* saying that many choices that people make continue their place in the cycle of poverty. sorry if you think that's a "neocon" view. Bill Cosby and John Edwards have both made this point(repeatedly) recently. are they "neocons". i have cites if needed for edward's comments, for example. similarly, many choices people make help facilitate a move out of poverty.

the US has among the highest income quintile mobility of any nation ever seen on the planet earth

one can (and does) make choices that make it more or less likely that one will move out of poverty.

many many people end up in poverty through absolutely no fault of their own, and i never said being 'poor was a choice'

spare me the reductionism and the strawmen

out of wedlock births, for example is a choice one makes that is likely to continue a cycle of poverty. groups that have lower oow births tend to have far less poverty per capita. sorry, if that's is "cosby'esque" or neocon'esque. choosing to use addictive drugs is another personal choice.

i am against the war on drugs, fwiw, but it doesn't follow that i don't think that people that choose to use these drugs are not making self-destructive choices.

smoking is a tremendous waste of disposable income. and it's a choice

spending $400+ a month on rental center type luxuries (and having lived and worked in the "ghetto" i saw this often firsthand) is a choice. and it perpetuates the cycle of poverty.

it doesn't build wealth or create opportunity. it drains people's (limited) disposable income