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September 30, 2005

Poverty Versus the Underclass

Posted by Van Helsing at September 30, 2005 1:53 PM

Charles Murray draws an excellent distinction in an editorial in yesterday's Wall Street Journal (thanks to Byron for the tip). Opportunistic politicians believe that they have rediscovered poverty in the wake of the hurricanes, but it isn't poverty we've been confronted with — it's the underclass.

Poverty is associated with the underclass only because the mentality that characterizes the underclass inevitably leads to indigence. Absent this mentality, poverty is solved by opportunity. But the underclass, by definition, rejects opportunity because of the responsibility it entails. The availability of jobs that draws so many immigrants into this country makes no difference to the underclass, because its members have no interest in jobs.

There were people who didn't evacuate New Orleans as Katrina approached because they couldn't be bothered to, despite some predictions that would have put them under 30 feet of water. When they lucked out instead of drowning, they looted and shot at rescuers, or inertly waited for someone else to do something. This is the behavior of the underclass.

Certainly there are poor people who struggle and take responsibility for themselves and their families. But in America, people like that don't stay poor for long. To stay poor long enough to pass poverty on through generations, Americans would almost have to be members of the underclass.

The reason throwing money at poverty only exacerbates the problem is that free money allows the underclass to thrive. For the most part, the sort of poverty that we saw floundering in the wake of Katrina is not caused by lack of opportunity. It is caused by an underclass that thrives on the wrong kind of opportunity: the opportunity to avoid responsibility.