Quote Originally Posted by MikeyinBrooklyn View Post
MWILBERT, I think I have a slightly different point of view than a lot of people do. I don't think anyone has a right to get out of poverty.
Well, I guess I would say I don't really think there is any need for anyone to be in poverty in the United States, but I agree that our society hasn't established a right not to be poor. I just think it is harder for people to escape poverty than you seem to. I think the evidence is on my side, but it isn't cut-and-dried.

But let me ask you this. What kind of life should drug addicts have? Let's talk, of what Alfie Doolittle called the undeserving poor. Do they have to live on the street with no teeth? I think it is entirely appropriate that they be less well-off than the working poor [[who I think should be better-off anyway), but how much worse off? And what about the children of the undeserving poor? We can say we think that people shouldn't have children without the means of raising them, but it doesn't seem that we have been able to prevent it. What are the appropriate living conditions for those kids?

The other thing is that this is only going to get worse as more jobs are lost to automation. US inequality is already at levels that have historically been destabilizing [[i.e. 1890's and 1920's). Eric Brynjolfsson thinks that 65% of the jobs in the economy can be eliminated in the foreseeable future. The only answer to widespread poverty is going to be giving money to people, either in conjunction with some kind of work requirement or not. The US political system is not ready for this, but it probably is going to need to start working on it pretty soon.