Eco 200: poverty

[kingrat]

(group) Consider and evaluate the instructor's assertion that poverty is a function of the choices which individuals make.

All people make constrained choices. Few people have choices so constrained that they cannot rise from poverty, at least given their starting point. The choices a person might have to make may be quite unpalatable (e.g., moving to a foreign country where ones skills are worth more). But those are still choices. One might be forced to choose between family and income, but that is still a choice.

Add in the fact that many people do very poorly at predicting the result of their choices. They don't intend to be poor. They just don't see the result of their choices. For example, one person I know constantly is making poorly thought out plans to get rich quick. He's got a hundred ways to make a million, though none of them will ever work. Meanwhile he's foregoing opportunities to get a better education or into a job that will result in better income over the long term.

Comments

[darkphoenixrisn.livejournal.com]

Here's an interesting piece from the NY Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/30/opinion/30mon3.html

[kingrat]

How is that interesting?

[darkphoenixrisn.livejournal.com]

Fine, it isn't interesting then. ;)

[kingrat]

Didn't say it wasn't. I'm just challenging you to draw the connection between the entry and the article. Nothing I saw in the article refuted anything in the entry, nor did it expand on the entry.

[darkphoenixrisn.livejournal.com]

I found this relevant: "...far less mobility up and down the economic ladder than economists once thought..." The question I would raise is whether this is due to poor choices being made or because our society is predicated on the necessity of classes existing? If someone takes the position that it's due to poor choices, is that predicated on the belief that there is a lot of class mobility?

[kingrat]

I don't think the two are mutually exclusive. I think our society is based on classes existing, and that one big determining factor in which class you end up is the choices you make. Capitalism relies on some proportion of people making choices. Someone has to be able to predict that customers want more computers. Inevitably other people will make choices that depend on people rejecting computers for their success. Peoples choices and outcomes are constrained by class (among many variables). And I think that for the most part people are not willing to make the choices necessary to move up in class. It's a lot tougher to move up in class than it is to stay the same. And so a lot fewer people move up.

[darkphoenixrisn.livejournal.com]

that one big determining factor in which class you end up is the choices you make.

I think the biggest factor is birth. If there's choice involved, it may make a difference between being poor working class and "middle class" working class, but outside of a few superachievers, it's unlikely to vault you into another class. The reverse is also true - barring some really disastrous choices, a person born into wealth is unlikely to fall down to the middle or working classes.