Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Poverty?

I believe "poverty" is a state of mind.
Some folks can overcome it.
Some only whine about their situation.
Some complain about "rich men got it made" and sit on their a$$.
A few get up off their duff, grab their bootstraps and begin pulling.
With a little drive and willingness, poverty can be overcome.

Then there are those who are quite satisfied with their situation and don't care to "do better".

Certainly.

The nut usually doesn’t fall very far from the tree.

Opportunity is everywhere and some can't see it because their folks couldn't see it either

That's a pretty damn good answer there sir.

Personally I see poverty both ways, learned, earned, and unexpected

Learned, as some have mentioned from family as "that's the way we do things". In other words we get a few bucks ahead then drink, gamble, snort, it up or buy some sort of unneeded junk when the old junk would suffice (Oh, we got a bonus check, let's get a bigger TV) instead of saving that money to get out of poverty.

Earned, as when a person from reasonable means decides on their own to go against what they learned, as in hard work, savings, doing without if not necessary, planning future, and then they live for the moment and end up with a bag of scheidt for their "efforts"

Unexpected as in a major life changing event that isn't easily recovered from, possibly combined with no family to help out even. Even hard working "middle class" folks with insurance and such can have a really expensive medical emergency arise and wipe them out.

I think my immediate family learned to make attempts at doing "better" than the previous generation. My folks, and their siblings, didn't have to live in small apartments/flats like they grew up in, they almost all moved to the burbs and owned their own houses. My generation, siblings and cousins, have mostly built on that. At the cost of modernity though. Usually both members of a married couple being employed. making efforts to advance at work, obtaining education higher than the previous generation in some cases.

Well according to the new world order plan, arent we all destined to live in poverty and be happy about it?
Except for the chosen few of coarse who will be making all the decisions for us.

There are two kinds of poverty - generational and situational. The generational focus on survival and short-term outcomes, and, over multiple generations becomes learned behavior. And reliance on social benefits. Little hope.

The situational can come from a number of things - dead-beat parent, death, joblessness etc. Some hope.

My parents split up when I was 12 years old.
I lived with my dad with my 3 brothers on his single Janitor's income.
To say it wasn't easy is a gross understatement.
I knew right away that my life was in my hands.
I busted my ass to be the best I could be.
In hindsight I think that those difficult years were good for me.
I've worked so hard to never be there again.
The spoiled brats of today's generations just make me sick.

Nobody has any control over the situation that they were born into, while everyone has control over their decisions.

A lot of poor people remain poor because they are emotionally tied to a geographic location and won't move away to improve their financial situation. I knew a guy who remained in the small town where he was raised because that is where his family and friends were and where he was comfortable with his place in the pecking order. He was a smart guy and could have achieved significantly more financial success if he had been willing to relocate, but he wasn't and he didn't. Military service has long been a way for poor kids to get themselves out of poverty, but a lot of poor kids don't qualify for enlistment because of their poor academic performance and/or a criminal record.

Generational poverty is, IMO, an entirely different thing, particularly in the Afro-American demographic. The majority of AA children are born out of wedlock and the majority of those children end up being raised on some form of social welfare program. AAs tend to be feral breeders who create unplanned children without ever thinking abut how they would raise/support them. AA men seldom take financial responsibility for the children who they create, the whole "baby daddy" thing, and AA women seem to accept feral breeding and birthing as a right. Where I live, in Douglas Country Nebraska, around 75% of all AA births are to unwed mothers and, from what I've read in the local news paper, it is normal for unwed AA women to produce multiple children with multiple baby daddies. While those mother may raise their children, they couldn't feed, cloth, or house them without extensive help from the social welfare system, IOW, on the tax payers' dime.

Or so it seems to me.

My folks were middle class. We were never rich, but had all we needed. I saw what poverty looked like when I started kindergarten. At five years old, I decided I’d learn what I needed to learn and do what I needed to do to not end up there. So far it has worked.

I could be a zillionaire....but I stayed home and I am getting to be a Dad and watch my kids grow.

Suits me.

So rather than invent the hated Starlink, you decided to stay a farmer.

Coolio.

I decided to be a field fish biologist. Haven't met a rich one yet. Seems to have worked out OK for me though.

Wife has a cousin, one year her elder, they grew up on the same street basically like sisters.

Cousin's parents blew money they didn't have constantly[have filed twice in the past], the cousin is just like her parents[has filed once], spends monies she doesn't have on crap she wants, not needs.
She rents a nice little house from a elderly close family friend of her dad, pays less than half of what it's worth.
The landlord is not in very good health and we all know that his daughter will more than double the rent when the day comes that she has control.
Wife finally gave up trying to get the cuz to start saving money for a rainy day.
She'll be out on the street again one day with nothing but a bunch of junk that she's acquired.
Her older brother was a very gifted athlete, got a scholarship, then removed himself from the area[and his family] and is doing well.

But she is carrying on the cycle and it's nearly identical to what she saw growing up.

Beats being a zillionaire everydamtime!
Now we're watching our grandsons grow.

Highland park ,ILL. is having a simulated poverty seminar this weekend.

Poverty is most definitely a state of mind. Some people are just allergic to making money or progressing upwards in life.

I've seen a good bit of that in my own family. I grew up often thinking man we may not be rich but it doesn't cost anything to not throw trash out in the yard or have junk laying around everywhere. You choose to live in squalor just as you can choose not to. I got the feeling from my parents that I wasn't supposed to want better things from life.

Poverty doesn't exist.



Socialist Victim-hood Slavery is learned.




GR

The continual redefining of poverty

This isn't a short read but the abuse of SS Disability is shocking to me but a lot of it is based, as you say, upon lack of hope. Worth your time to read it.

https://apps.npr.org/unfit-for-work/

You gotta be asking for opinions as opposed to fact?

Ain't no one from S. Louisiana gotta ask that.


Look around here and it upsets me.
Folks work hard at doing stupid schidt. Ensuring they and their kids remain
broke ass and in debt.



Jim hit on one of the top 5 ways!
Add alcohol and gambling.
Trying to look rich..

Hell, don't need 5, those 4 are plenty.

That certainly was not my intent.

I'd say many have no excuse for their bad situations, and some just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and end up behind the 8-ball. There's the guy who pisses away every nickel on booze, ink, and general self indulgence and then there's the guy whose company decides to implement a reduction in force three weeks after he's closed on a house and then loses his health coverage then finds out he's got a cancer of some kind. It's not always laziness or irresponsibility that drags folks into poverty. Then again, there are cases like the guy I described...he thinks like a poor man, and while he's not a bad guy by any stretch I'd have to say his thinking is just bad...and it's puzzling as hell to me. Bottom line---I think some people live in poverty because they're just not capable of making good decisions or consciously make bad ones and there are people are blindsided with bad luck, and there's a broad spectrum in between those two extremes.

I've been to the bottom myself, having basically nothing but two hungry dogs and a wore out pickup truck. I believe there's almost always a way out when a man's willing to persevere and do what it takes. I'm not wealthy, but I'm not in bad shape at all. I'll say this one thing, though...security is an illusion. It feels good to believe we have it, but nobody on this planet is secure. I don't care WHO you are, you could wake up tomorrow morning with nothing.

I count my blessings and contemplate these things on a regular basis.