Padawanbater2
Well-Known Member
MYTH 4: POOR PEOPLE ARE LAZY.
Why it's not true: In 2004, there was at least one adult with a job in 60 percent of families on food stamps that had both kids and a nondisabled, working-age adult.
Williamson's response: Awfully specific metric. And a lot of those jobs were short-term and part-time. Poor people may not be lazy, but they do not work: There is an average of 0.42 full-time earners per household in the bottom 20 percent income group, and nearly 70 percent of the people in those households are not employed.
Why he's wrong: Lots of poor people work. More than 10 million American workers live in poverty, because their jobs don't pay them enough to get by and/or their employer only offers them part-time hours. Half of all fast-food workers, for example, are forced to rely on public programs like food stamps and Medicaid to supplement meager wages. And lots of poor people are poor because they can't find work, or are not physically able to work. There are three job applicants for every job opening in this economy. Blacks have a 12 percent unemployment rate and Hispanics have an 8 percent jobless rate. A quarter of adults with a disability live in poverty.
MYTH 6: GO TO COLLEGE, GET OUT OF POVERTY.
Why it's not true: In 2012, about 1.1 million people who made less than $25,000 a year, worked full time, and were heads of household had a bachelor's degree.**
Williamson's response: Those five years that two-thirds of single mothers don't spend in relationships with their children's fathers? Don't use them to get women's studies degrees. In any case, 1.1 million is not a very big number, constituting fewer than 1 percent of US households.
Why he's wrong: Here, Williamson both agrees that college isn't necessarily a ticket out of poverty, and then downplays the million-plus Americans with a college degree who are poor.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/03/poverty-myths-debunked-again
Why it's not true: In 2004, there was at least one adult with a job in 60 percent of families on food stamps that had both kids and a nondisabled, working-age adult.
Williamson's response: Awfully specific metric. And a lot of those jobs were short-term and part-time. Poor people may not be lazy, but they do not work: There is an average of 0.42 full-time earners per household in the bottom 20 percent income group, and nearly 70 percent of the people in those households are not employed.
Why he's wrong: Lots of poor people work. More than 10 million American workers live in poverty, because their jobs don't pay them enough to get by and/or their employer only offers them part-time hours. Half of all fast-food workers, for example, are forced to rely on public programs like food stamps and Medicaid to supplement meager wages. And lots of poor people are poor because they can't find work, or are not physically able to work. There are three job applicants for every job opening in this economy. Blacks have a 12 percent unemployment rate and Hispanics have an 8 percent jobless rate. A quarter of adults with a disability live in poverty.
MYTH 6: GO TO COLLEGE, GET OUT OF POVERTY.
Why it's not true: In 2012, about 1.1 million people who made less than $25,000 a year, worked full time, and were heads of household had a bachelor's degree.**
Williamson's response: Those five years that two-thirds of single mothers don't spend in relationships with their children's fathers? Don't use them to get women's studies degrees. In any case, 1.1 million is not a very big number, constituting fewer than 1 percent of US households.
Why he's wrong: Here, Williamson both agrees that college isn't necessarily a ticket out of poverty, and then downplays the million-plus Americans with a college degree who are poor.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/03/poverty-myths-debunked-again
