Well.. you started with the "there are opportunities for the poor".. implying that the poor have the same opportunities for the rich and that being poor was simply because of their refusal to work hard, to take advantage of opportunities.
Now you say that is "many people". Well.. the poor are composed of the elderly.. most of whom can't work. Its composed of children, who can't work. its composed of disabled.. who can't work or who have difficulty working. So now discussing the poor.. we are down to a much smaller group.
So already.. the "many people" has become a few.
Then a large portion of those people work hard. take advantage of opportunities SUCH AS THEY EXIST.. yet still remain poor.
What you fail to realize is that what you describe is a minority of the poor. Yep.. there are some lazy poor folks out there. but its the vast minority.
That's just a fact when describing who "the poor" really are.
Again, you are misrepresenting what I said. Of course there are poor (such as the disabled) who have no way out and we should treat them much better than we do now. And, I never said that all of the poor do not work hard. I realize that working at Walmart and McDonalds is much harder work than most of the rich do (pretty much been there, done that myself). But, there are many of the poor who are lazy. I did say that a whole lot of those poor people have no clue or no desire to get ahead. There are ways out of their hole and they either don't know how to take advantage of them or they have no desire to take advantage of opportunities that do pop up.
Speaking of myself as an example, when I was young I started out after high school working in a factory, actually making pretty damn good money for an 18 year old, and I actually made more money than my boss, believe it or not. We worked peacework and I lucked out getting a job that paid well. I realized that since I already made more money than my boss, that there was no long term future in this place. There was literally nothing more to move up to, money wise. Eventually this factory closed down long after I left. But, when the minimum wage was just $2.65 per hour and I was working a job that paid $8-$10 per hour back in the middle 70's, I quit to cook pizzas at Pizza Hut for that $2.65 per hour minimum wage because I had the determination to move up to assistant manager, manager, and hopefully beyond. My friends all told me that I was nuts. And, I did it. Sometimes you have to take a step backward in order to take two steps forward. I then moved my Pizza Hut experience into moving on to retail management and jobs that required me to relocate in order to move up the ladder, which I did too. I have lived in a few different areas around the country, working in a few different fields. Then I quit a few jobs and moved further and further up the ladder to the point where I had saved up enough money to put a down payment down on my own business. Many of the poor just won't do what is necessary to get ahead. They want to stay in their little spot on the planet and have wealth just radiate to them like a magnet. It doesn't work that way. You have to go out and get it because it is not just going to rain down on you. Sitting around waiting for the minimum wage to go up is only going to make you poor the rest of your life. There are opportunities for just about everyone. Any person who works at McDonalds can work their way up to shift supervisor, assistant manager, and beyond - everyone who has the desire. Many don't want to do it. What I describe is the majority of the poor, not the minority. I have seen many, many of these poor get huge tax refunds every year due to the EIC and they don't use the money for necessities or living expenses at all - they just piss the thousands of dollars away on stupid stuff.
Most of those poor elderly you refer to are people that squandered opportunities and money their whole lives. Many people just refuse to save, even when they can save. I have seen it almost every day for decades. You get a windfall of a few hundred or a few thousand dollars and you have to find a way to spend it, often times pissing the money away into nothingness. That's one of our biggest faults in society. Hell, many people have won lotteries, only to find out a few years later that they are bankrupt. Some sports stars and celebrities piss their money away into bankruptcy. We need budget and financial training in lower schools, high schools, and college and the courses should be mandatory, not elective.
Now you seem to be in a business where probably you deal more with middle class'rs than the very poor so, it's possible you are relying more on information you receive than actual experience but I have worked with those very poor for decades.
