Poverty

John Edwards gave a speech this week in which his main point was that the U.S. should eliminate poverty over the next 30 years. Predictably, all the leftwing websites are praising him and endorsing the idea.

Are you kidding me? Doesn't anybody study history anymore?

1) There has always been poor people, and there always will be poor people. Hell, even the Bible recognizes this. People are poor for various reasons, but the primary one is poor decision making. Deciding not to study in school, deciding to do drugs, deciding to have children you cannot support, etc. Other people are poor because they are lazy. Frankly some people are poor because they are mentally deficient. Very few people who are hard working and desire to better themselves are unable to do so.

2) This country currently spends billions every year subsidizing the poor. This includes income tax "refunds" to people who don't pay taxes, and food stamps and cash payments to people who own color TVs and $200 shoes. To anyone who says we aren't doing enough to help the poor I call bullshit.

3) Another "buy the voter" Democrat (LBJ) declared war on poverty nearly 50 years ago. Hundreds of billions of dollars later, we have more poverty than ever. The Democratic party is so set on declaring defeat in all our wars, why haven't they demanded our withdrawal from this one yet?

4) Poverty is an entirely relative thing. The only people who are homeless today in the US are homeless by choice or mental incompetence. (another legacy of the feel good Democrats is the fact we can't institutionalize the mentally incomptent, instead we have to let them beg on the streets and shit on the sidewalks) Even the poorest person today has a better quality of life than 90% of all the people who have ever lived on this planet. We have people with indoor plumbing and running water, electricity, gas, color television, refrigerators, cars and a healthy diet, and they are considered poor. Folks, in my grandparents generation, most middle class people didn't have all of those!

This is just another example of a Democratic leader pandering to his base, people who have abandoned logic and reason for emotions and feelings.