Nov
How to Avoid Poverty
So often today, we want to help folks out. We want to help them “get out of poverty.” I certainly agree with this in the sense that if we can reduce the number of folks in poverty and on government programs, our country will flourish. However, what it ultimately comes down to is the individual making a choice that he or she WANTS to get out of poverty. The Washington Post had a good piece Sunday on how we can do just that. Many in our county make the decision to make themselves better. About 80% of millionaires are first generation millionaires (according to Thomas Stanley in The Millionaire Next Door).
First the article talks about how those in poverty are very likely to stay there:
If you are born into a middle-class family in the United States, you have a roughly even chance of moving up or down the ladder by the time you are an adult. But the story for low-income Americans is quite different; going from rags to riches in a generation is rare. Instead, if you are born poor, you are likely to stay that way. Only 35 percent of children in a family in the bottom fifth of the income scale will achieve middle-class status or better by the time they are adults; in contrast, 76 percent of children from the top fifth will be middle-class or higher as adults.
However, it goes on to point out how to get out of that situation:
Of course money is a factor in upward mobility, but it isn’t the only one; it may not even be the most important. Our research shows that if you want to avoid poverty and join the middle class in the United States, you need to complete high school (at a minimum), work full time and marry before you have children. If you do all three, your chances of being poor fall from 12 percent to 2 percent, and your chances of joining the middle class or above rise from 56 to 74 percent. (We define middle class as having an income of at least $50,000 a year for a family of three.) [emphasis mine]
These are amazing statistics for seemingly small steps. However, those that are in poverty generally do not do these things, and so they dramatically increase their chances of remaining in poverty. As we reach out to these folks, we need to encourage them to make the choices which will help them prosper rather than causing an increased likelihood of failure.
[...] Also see: How to Avoid Poverty [...]
October 26th, 2011 at 5:32 am