Here are some reader comments from our recent Opinion blog regarding the War on Poverty.
Suburban Bred: How can it be that 20 percent of Georgians fulfill the stereotypes of why people are poor? Are all of them lazy, addicts, etc? No. The vast majority are hard-working people trapped in a system that does not benefit them. Some make it out, start businesses, thrive and never return to poverty. Many stay in the cycle of poverty. Our schools fail them as kids, and work opportunities fail them as adults. One in 10 jobs in Georgia pays minimum wage. The median age of fast-food workers, often making at or near the minimum wage, is 29. If you cut food stamps, free/reduced school lunch and breakfast and other aid, more people would fall into poverty. Kids, already the most vulnerable, would feel the brunt of the impact. In the long term, we all would feel it. If we don't have a healthy, educated populace, our state will suffer. Our state suffers now with the impacts of poverty. In any conversation like this, we must mention that corporations in Georgia and the U.S. are experiencing record profits. They can afford to pay workers more and provide better benefits, but choose not to. They are coming to Georgia because we allow them to pay low wages, and we give them huge tax breaks for proposed jobs, which often aren't created. But our people, our neighbors, millions of our fellow Georgians of all races, ages, and genders, suffer at or near poverty.
Scam for poverty: Bill Bolling wrote that fighting the War on Poverty "will require that we take the long view, a willingness to invest in our collective future knowing there are few immediate rewards." This is Democrat new-speak. Let me rephrase for those who don't understand: We need to continue taxing the top 50 percent of taxpayers indefinitely to achieve unattainable, nebulous goals. It doesn't matter that the poor will not help themselves. It doesn't matter that the supposedly oppressed population has remained stagnant for the last 50 years while foreign-born immigrants have moved here and, through hard work, achieved a means of success for themselves above and beyond this "oppressed" population. None of that matters because we, the Democratic Party, know better than you. We know these poor people need help even if they have cell phones, flat screens and [rims] on their cars. We know these poor people need help even if they are purchasing lobster and Coca-Cola with their food stamps. We knowthese poor people need help even if they are not required to do one iota of anything in order to receive unemployment compensation for weeks. We know these poor people need help even as they shame their family or friends for excelling in school and acting like "the man." We know these poor people need help even though they eschew mainstream America and pursue an inferior, family destroying culture. So please pay no attention to the life-destroying decisions these people make, and continue to fork over huge amounts of money to shower on them because we know they need it and they vote for us.
