The Poor

Chester McAteer

People think, or at least act as though they think that poverty is a money problem, it's not if that were the case we would not have poverty. Poverty is primarily an opportunity problem or at least a lack of access to opportunity. The lack of opportunity is almost invariably due to certain economically restrictive laws and regulations that impede open competition in the market.

Restrictive laws will always land us in the dilemma of the exacerbation of not only poverty, but also stratified class structures within society. It is that restrictive laws produce scarcity and in the process it inflicts economic and therefore social injury upon people who have been denied the possibility of taking advantage of opportunities that would be possible without the restrictions.

Remember, politicians don't have crystal balls to gaze into the future to judge the actions and consequences of their legislative acts. They legislate through a dark glass, either for what they perceive as present or past wrongs, most of those wrongs were due to past legislative actions taken by their predecessors, who like the current politicians did the same thing and thought it necessary to take action in economic and social areas that few understand.

The original state of humanity is destitution, until the early 1800s and the inception of a government that looked at life and the value of human potential differently, 98% of the world's population was destitute and would have remained so if the Enlightenment had not compelled a revolt against the accepted order of government. It is not the government nor has it ever been the government that raised the standard of living of humans. Today, less than 10% of the world's population live in abject poverty. Now, you can't thank the Government for that, nor can you thank Socialism of any stripe, but you can thank Capitalism.

Government can either facilitate or obstruct the market by which humans can rise above their current station in life, in most instances it hinders rather than helps and is currently hindering the advance through crony Corporatism. The sole intent of the government is to protect the property and life of people as they freely pursue their endeavors. It is not the place of government to act in any paternal manner, for it's never proven an adequate parent. It is between destitution and satisfaction, where all manner of obstacles naturally exist without the artificial political hindrances that humans can, given the open opportunity, and the will to labor, humans to the ability to overcome unbelievable problems. People have somehow come to believe that all these political obstacles both protect and provide a path to prosperity, nothing can be further from the truth and the history of the political economy of the last 150 years proves that fact.

In the gulf between destitution and universal affluence there's a multitude of obstacles and roadblocks, not the least of these are those that politicians erect, even with good intentions. Interestingly most people have come to believe that such obstacles are placed for our benefit and that they might, somehow, fuel general prosperity. Hope is found only in the ability of humans to affect the movement of their lives through voluntary cooperation within the market and through the market process gain the potential for increasing the standards of their lives and those of their families.

Tim adds:

But don't forget sloth and other deadly sins, which is in no small measure the cause of a good deal of poverty. I used to work in the real estate business and dealt with a lot of poor people. In many cases (surely not all) they were poor because they simply refused to work to provide for themselves - and they enjoyed a life of alcohol and drug abuse to go with it.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 08:16 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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