One of the surest ways to create a heated discussion with someone is to bring up the subject of welfare. Everyone has an opinion about public assistance, and what the government should do to expand, or downsize, “the system.” Whether you think it should get bigger or smaller will depend on your perception of why poor people are poor. That opinion is greatly influenced by how and where you grew up.
I was raised in a middle-class home and community. I know that is a blessing. Not everyone grows up with loving parents, discipline, a work ethic, and a nurturing community of like-minded individuals. But this advantage can also be a stumbling block when it comes to understanding other socio-economic groups. Before I started working in Extension and collaborating with social service agencies, my solution for helping someone “get out of poverty” was pretty straight forward: pull yourself up by your boot-straps, try harder, and all those other platitudes we spout when someone is struggling.
Unfortunately, it takes a lot more to achieve financial success than sheer force of will (although it can be a starting point). How do a large majority of people turn into self-supporting adults and others, not? It is a subject that seems simple on the surface, but in actuality is very complex, even volatile. There is a lot of anger simmering throughout the country right now with the recession, unemployment, and staggering budget deficits looming. People are angry at the government for not generating more employment opportunities and with poor people for draining away state resources. To get a wider perspective, we need to look at the myriad factors that dictate where a person lands in life, and how much personal responsibility factors into the equation.
External Factors – Geographical location, education, culture, family history, health, and income are huge starting factors that an infant being thrust into the world does not get to choose. Most of us were lucky at birth. We were not born on garbage heaps in Calcutta. This is not said to diminish the real suffering that goes on in some pockets of our country, but the poorest people in America are wealthy compared to the poor in third-world countries.
A good way to describe external factors is to liken them to a card game. You are dealt a certain hand, and you have to play with the cards you are dealt. Some people get great “cards,” such as good looks, athletic ability, and high intelligence. Those cards can be the decisive “thumb on the scale” that gives someone an automatic lift into success. Others receive bad hands, with dysfunctional parents, poverty, or physical and mental challenges among their cards. Their bad cards have to be played until they turn 18, or depending on the card, possibly a lifetime.
Luck – When something good happens to another person, it is normal to feel a little envious of their good fortune. But what the envious do not always recognize is the enormous amount of work and risk it took to get lucky. My favorite definition of luck is “when preparation meets opportunity.” Going to school and furthering your education, practicing (anything from sports to the piano), and setting goals are ways that successful people use to get ahead. If you are not willing to do the work it takes to succeed, you will reduce your odds of getting lucky.
Opportunity – Not everyone is offered opportunities to succeed. Some people receive opportunities and squander them. We all know of kids who go to college, party hard for a couple of semesters, and flunk out. Others go using a combination of loans, scholarships, and part-time jobs and work very hard. How we respond to opportunities is just as important as the opportunity itself.
Choice – One of the greatest gifts all Americans receive at birth is the gift of freedom. Essentially, we have the luxury to choose how we will live our lives. Choice is a variable factor. Some decisions are made after careful deliberation; others just reflect our thought process at any given moment. I do not know anyone who does not regret some of their past choices. However, I find it interesting that the scale we use to judge others’ choices differs from how we view our own. Psychologists actually have a name for it: fundamental attribution error. In your head, you believe that whatever problems you have are the result of difficult circumstances, whereas those same problems in others are a result of their bad choices.
There are so many other factors to consider it would take pages to delineate them all. In addition to the four listed above we should include abuse, lack of knowledge of “hidden rules,” laziness, attitude, maturity, work ethic, role models, discrimination, making mistakes early on that give you heartache for life, addiction, and peers.
What can you take from this? First, that life can be very random, so it is not always fair to pat yourself on the back if you got lucky. Second, poverty is a very complex issue that cannot be attributed solely to behavioral factors. And third, if you are lucky enough to be one of the “haves,” how can you use your knowledge and skills to help others? Senator Ted Kennedy, who received the good cards of wealth, intelligence, and political cache, also made some disastrous personal choices. But his philosophy–to whom much is given, much is expected—is one that we can all work to emulate.
