#PouredOver

[@1nelala]

Matthew Desmond, that was awesome!!!! That was a great interview.

[@nickmagrick7702]

Just heard this guy on NPR. I like him. I don't like most guests. This guys smart, and he really cares about humanitarian issues, and he backs that up with good data

[@drwalka10]

Response to Matthew Desmond's "Why Poverty Persists in America" - kzbin.info/www/bejne/eoillXl-dp1-rLc

[@mikerunser902]

Shallow Government.. More concerned about poverty abroad.

[@rupachenthil]

Education is the solution to most problems. Focus on providing good education to all, including inner cities. Everything else will fall in place

[@Zuckerpuppekopf]

Better education is a mirage, because it is a voluntary not imposed engagement. As the saying goes, "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink".

[@rupachenthil]

@@Zuckerpuppekopf so it is the individual choice

[@Zuckerpuppekopf]

@@rupachenthil So will you want to pay a lifetime for the individual who chooses not to be educated, or otherwise cannot be educated? There are many who are intractably poor in that respect.

[@gabrielagabyrodriguez72]

And this is why the powers keep poor neighborhoods hostage and force people in the schools who do not have the ability to move to a wealthier school district

[@gabrielagabyrodriguez72]

To say people choose to stay poor ignores the fact that systems are created to keep people in slave mode- did you read the book?!

[@THEROOTMATTERS]

"REALLY CUT THE CANCER OUT"

[@rupachenthil]

Wait.. in evicted, didn't he make it very clear, at least towards the end that he came from a similar impoverished background but progressed and succeeded just from making the right choices? Am I missing something here?

[@tamaragreene6996]

I constantly teach my children that choices have consequences. I am from an African American family that stood firm on good morals and values. "As a man thinkest, so is he."

[@rupachenthil]

@Tamara Greene well said. That's exactly what I tell my son, too. I'm there to support you, but ultimately, you'll have to face the consequences of the choices you make.

[@Zuckerpuppekopf]

The notion that poverty rates have not changed over the years is not entirely correct: the advent of Social Security dropped elderly poverty rates dramatically, rates that would exceed 40% fell to less than 10%. Social Security however is funded by the participants. General aid to the poor would need to be funded by someone else. Avoidance of entitlements is perfectly understandable in that context, as many people just don't want to be so indebted. Some of the avoidance is simply because the acquisition of entitlements is itself a job, a boring job. The cost of gate-keeping entitlements itself is a drain on those funds, it's a very leaky bucket. Therefore, the special case of transitional poor vs intractable poor is nearly impossible to separate, requiring expensive bureaucracies, and although an admirable goal, won't necessarily pay for itself as the intractable poor will sink it financially. The intractable poor are often in their position because of handicaps: cognitive, behavioral, physical, - and therefore will both consume more and waste more money on a chronic basis. By "waste" I mean with less education and intelligence, that cohort often will spend more and save less on a day to day basis than other individuals. For example, you often hear about the "food deserts" of poor communities and how they pay more for food, but that is only because they lack the education as well as the will to focus their diet on the essentials. The 3rd world subsists on beans and rice because it is a fantastically nutritious and inexpensive food source. This is a mystery to American poor for some reason even though it is the least expensive food source. Smoking and other vice rates are higher among the poor. These are all expensive and unnecessary habits. The only way to solve the intractable behavioral issue is to cut funding to the poor, not increase it, but do so by making a welfare entitlement a temporary "surge" income, which can be paid at one moment of need. A larger amount, but a final lifetime amount. Or some fixed number of assistance points in life, say 3. Then those who have the wisdom and intelligence to parse out that fixed windfall and use it to rehabilitate their lives will then succeed, and those who can't are the intractable poor, -- those you can do nothing about unless you establish institutionalized residence and care.

[@Zuckerpuppekopf]

It would be like a "Game of Entitlements". You get 3 lives. If you waste these opportunities, you are done.

[@rupachenthil]

Fantastic! You should write a book. How well articulated!!