Is that really necessary? Does anyone want to hear what you have to say when you start off that way?

I don’t. I am not interested in your points after you do that number.

Actually you should be suspended from posting here, in my opinion, for bad behavior.

“An observation about class: Some people (due to emotional deficiencies?) have to put others down before they elevate themselves.”

Nonesense, a show about poverty has an obligation to speak about the subject in an objective manner and not to assume that everyone will agree or should agree with the shows subjective and indeed emotional content.

It does the poor no good if they are objectified as helpless creatures who need pity and love instead of a real help.

“We all have deficiencies, yet we all do not do that number.”

This isn’t about you, Potter, dear.

We all have deficiencies, yet we all do not do that number.

The second meaning of class, in the sense of “having class” applies. This is about having dignity and respecting the dignity of others.

That’s often the case do good liberals often feel more comfortable talking about poor people than letting the poor speak for themselves.

I found the whole concept of poverty as expressed on the program unreal.

You are full of embarrasments aren’t you, Benjamin Walker?

Actually, your emotional deficiencies don’t interest me.

If there is a country that you think deals with the issues of “race and class” better than we do, I’d like to know what it is.

Otherwise feel free to move to Iceland a so called egalitarian society.

On why so many do not escape the constraint’s of class: I notice no diversity in the class of the guests … all educated, successful, and confident, even arrogant.

Does ROS think those who have not overcome the constraints of class, say the younger Cubitt or Conley, or the Dickerson before Harvard, have nothing to contribute to the conversation? Perhpas so and perhpas understandably. But then …

I am embarrassed to listen to the same radio show as you.

actually I am embarrassed to live on same planet as you

I recall you being quite vocal on some other shows about how the staff was not paying attention to things that spoke to you.

do you have any sense of how closeminded you are???

My real problem with the show is that it confused two sources of poverty in America today: personal ability and personal motivation. Race in an of itself doesn’t even begin to explain the causes of poverty.

The reasons are quite simple. First there is poverty in every country and within members of the same race.

Second, many African Americans have been doing very well indeed.

That most people are average in intelligence a fact brought up in the program is true. Yet most people are also motivated to go to work and not wait for handouts.

Some are not, and among those folks you will find the most heart felt cases of poverty. I feel sorry for their children and the rest of the society should step in and help those children.

One other point:

speakers very glibly talk about “the rest of the world.”

What does the rest of the world mean? Surely not India, or Africa or China were the poverty rate is obscenely much higher than in the US. Now these countries along with Indonesia and the Arab world constitute “the rest of the world.”

Of course, I left out Europe a small corner of the world were the people had a huge Empire and lived very well of the rest of the world.

That Europeans have a more equitable social system is true. It’s also true that those countries have a host of problems that will in the near future change their social welfare system. Either that or these countries will not survive past say 2075.

So let’s not glibly speak of “the rest of the world.”

We have problems here, yes. However, they can be addressed with demagogic appeals to “race.”

The concept of race does not begin to explain poverty in America. At best it’s one factor among many others.

I do think class trumps race. And class, the class of these discussions is all about money and priviledge, not the class, the natural class, the dignity that people have, all people have. Many people who are poor, have a lot of class. But maybe that is another subject. I think we are talking about “getting ahead”, whatever that means. I loved what Debra was saying about not letting anyone put themselves on her or tell her about her worth. When a person feels that way about themselves, that’s a measure of dignity and it is a component of class,
the only kind of class that counts.

How tied up with money is class?

I am white and not exactly middle class (not a home owner) and didn’t have all those advantages he says all white people have.

Lots of white folks are in my position.

When I hear comments like the ones by your guest I just turn off the radio because I know he is not speaking to me.

By the same token each darker shade of one’s skin has an order of magnitude greater whammy than that of the next lighter shade.

Hence poor people have a much bigger whammy than rich people, and dark skinned people have a much bigger whammy than light skinned. And, of course, compared to rich whites, poor blacks have to contend with a BIG, DOUBLE WHAMMY.

You can debate till the end of time, if you want, as to the reason for this, but regardless of what you conclude, nobody really cares. Regardless why, THAT’S THE WAY IT IS.. Of course, you can also pick any reason you want to change it. Go ahead and do it and you’ll find nobody cares why, just so it changes.

Cheers.

And we all internally know that the enviroment makes the difference. Try to imagine your own precious kids born into poverty. They wouldn’t succeed on their own. You know your kids need you to succeed; that’s why you take parenting so seriously.

Knowing that kids need help to succeed, and that almost all kids can succeed, how can we justify not helping them? How can we ignore kids in poverty, some hungry, without decent healthcare? What are the psychological, political, and social barriers to addressing poverty? Who gains from convincing us to ignore the issue? Any issue of what can be done to address poverty must include a discussion of the interests actively working against addressing it.