Long-Term Poverty Often a Choice

Alan Aker has an important column in the Rapid City Journal today.

Alan tells a bit about himself and his background because, as he says, he's received letters from readers who seem to think he's some silver-spoon fat-cat who has no idea what it's like to be poor.

You know that I’m a Republican who thinks government spends too much money trying to help people and takes too much money from wealthy people. You know that I don’t think there’s anything wrong with people having to pay $3 a gallon for gas.

You don’t know the whole story.

You don’t know that I grew up in a trailer house next to a wood treating plant and wore homemade shirts to middle school. You don’t know that I’ve been on welfare.

You don’t know that 15 years ago, I supported a family on less than $18,000 in income.

I am hard on poor people.

It’s because I used to be one.

It’s because I know that for most people,long-term poverty is a choice.

I have received many of those same letters over the years I've been writing.

They don't know I grew up the dirt-poor son of a small farmer who refused to play the big-debt games that some farmers do. I grew up without fancy clothes and fancy cars and didn't get to do a whole lot of fun things as a kid--we were always busy trying to keep the farm from going under--which it eventually did.

I've had my times as an adult, too. There was a long stretch where I lived on a can of store-brand spaghetti and a personal-size pizza with some Shasta cola every day until I could dig myself out of a financial disaster I foolishly allowed someone to drag me into. And times were lean again when I stared a new career after getting out of the military.

But I've not taken a single dime of welfare, unemployment, or anything from the government. And I'm proud of that. As any man should, I take pride in having taken care of myself, even when it was tough. Some folks absolutely have to seek the assistance of others for a short time, and that's okay.

But if you don't have the dignity that compels you to do for yourself, then looking to others to meet your needs quickly becomes a way of life. A poor, lousy, unpleasant way of life, but some people actually prefer that to the hard work of meeting their own needs.

I can't speak for Alan, but I suspect he's like me. He's seen enough poverty to know from his heart that he doesn't want people to live that way.

For those who have financial setbacks and major medical problems, there may be no choice. But for those who got that way because they like to drink too much, like drugs too much, like to gamble too much, or just flat don't like the responsibility of a solid work ethic, well, patting them on the head and telling them it isn't their fault isn't going to make it better.

Poverty isn't fun. But for some people, if we remove the unpleasantness of it through reckless government welfare, and if we remove the stigma by telling them it's the fault of some evil rich guy, it's easier for them to stay in that situation than to do the hard work of getting themselves out of it.

Sometimes, long-term poverty is a choice.