A Reactionary Lie: The Poor Are Poor Because They Blow All Their Money

Jason Y writes

Some people cannot handle money. They’re poor for a reason. It’s almost a 100 percent chance they’d spend the money on foolishness if given money. Note, when I say foolishness It could mean being a party animal. On the other hand, it could be a case where the money isn’t saved or wisely invested in a business, since the person getting it has zero business education.

It’s a lie, a reactionary lie, and it is most commonly voiced by wealthy elites is the worst places on Earth like Latin America and the Philippines. I have heard it from rich Chileans and Filipinos. They justify the insane inequality in their societies by saying that if the poor just saved their money like everyone else, they would be rich too. It’s a lie, and that ought to be apparent to anyone with brains. The poor are not poor because they blow all their money. They’re poor because they hardly make any money in the first place!

Please follow and like us:
error3
fb-share-icon20
20
fb-share-icon20

0 thoughts on “A Reactionary Lie: The Poor Are Poor Because They Blow All Their Money”

  1. “Não adianta dar dinheiro aos pobres porque eles vão gastar tudo em pinga.” = It is no use giving money to the poor because they will spend it all on booze. I heard that line quite often in Brazil.
    This has of course been historically refuted by the behavior of the working class in high-wage countries. When blue-collar workers started to make decent money, they bought houses, cars, appliances and so on. They didn’t spend it all on booze.
    Still, it can’t be denied that in many parts of the world, especially in Latin America, the husband and father in the lower classes spends an unconscionable part of family income on booze. The basic rule for the lower classes seems to be that the women are on average much more responsible than the men. That’s why evangelical churches in Latin America devote a lot of effort to keeping men on the straight and narrow.

    1. So give it to them as subsidized housing, free or cheap medical care or food stamps or subsidized food. It’s hard to take apart your house and buy booze with it. You can’t buy an apple at the store and trade it for liquor. You take your medical bill into the liquor store and buy a bottle with it.

      1. Lindsay
        I know of people who receive section 8 housing and rent out some of rooms, so they can buy heroin. People trade their food stamps for drug money all the time.

        1. We have Section 8 all over this complex. You get caught doing that and you are off the program never to come back on. There are always going to be people gaming the system no matter what. There’s nothing you can do about it.
          Nowadays it is an EBT card, not food stamps I think. And I think the EBT card may be tied to your name too so other people cannot use it. That said, I only know three people who used food stamps, and none of them cheated on the program. One was Jewish!
          I have long advocated making these programs harder to cheat on.

        2. I know this sounds demoralizing, but there are arguments to be made for supervising purchases, especially when there are children involved.

      2. In East Germany, they didn’t give the workers a lot of money, or there wasn’t a consumerist or hedonistic culture.
        It is a reactionary lie. If liberals could convey this, instead of focusing on “inclusiveness” and “diversity”, they would be important allies on this major front.

  2. I’ve tried to spend all my money on booze. Its actually quite hard to do. Its really the second cheapest entertainment that you can get, after TV.
    Now it is pretty easy for a man to spend all his money on women. But if he is happy to just get drunk, he really has to work to spend it all on booze.

  3. In some cases, you can argue the parents are bums using thier money for drugs/booze. I’ve seen way too much of it firsthand. Not in all cases though.

    1. Redistribution of wealth usually does not just involve giving people free money. Mostly it involves taking money from the rich and giving it to low and middle income workers. If someone works, who cares what they spend their money on? So they blow all their money? So what? It’s their money, they can spend it on whatever they want.
      I live with a bunch of basically poor people. I know one Black women who drinks, but I do not know anyone else who drinks a lot or takes drugs. But I don’t know these people very well. Everyone in this complex works and most have kids. They don’t have the time or inclination to waste their money on booze and dope.
      Saying you should not redistribute money downwards from the rich to working class workers is really a toxic argument. Anyway, if they blow their money, so what? Liquor stores are local businesses and they are part of the local economy. Liquor stores and even bars keep the local economy going.
      If workers are just going to blow all their money on booze anyway, why should we pay them anything. Even if they work 40 hours a week, we should not pay them any money because they will just drink it up? See where that argument goes?

  4. It’s a stretch but in some cases it’s true. Some people are beyond help, like Jason talks about, but it’s often times a lie perpetrated by the rightists.
    You do know about Che and the Latin American Blacks….?

    1. It’s generally well known all males are supposed to drink in hyper-masculine nations like the Phillippines or in Latin America, South Korea etc.. So of the course the poor drink, and also the hypocritical rich males also drink.
      Yes, Che was a chauvanist asshole who didn’t care for blacks, even though a lot of far left leaning blacks might think he’s a hero.

    2. I would also say a lot of poor whites and blacks in the USA also work for a living, and work very hard. There is only a minority hooked on drugs etc.. who are then made poster people by the right, saying the poor are worthless SOBs and deserve no pity.

Leave a Reply to Gay State Girl Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

error

Enjoy this blog? Please spread the word :)