So when mg asks what makes folks do what they do and why they don't make choices that she might make I'd suggest that a little knowledge of our history might throw some light into why folks do what they do... It's almost condition/response...

I will try again. I did not say that. Do not say I said what I did not say. I am for almost every social program there is. I want people to look for ways to get people out of poverty and to keep them out if they might slip toward it. The best way to get into it or stay in it is to have children before you are ready, use drugs or alcohol and not have vocational training and be in an unsafe environment. If you go after those 4 cornerstones, you can help all sorts of people. I have never ever blamed the victim here. But the victim is not only the visible poor person, but like I said, the marginally poor person who has to pay more taxes than she should whilst slaughtering chickens for a living, or the person who ahs to live next door to a crack house etc. etc. I get really really angry when people say I said stuff I did not say, have never said, have never thought. I will say and have always said that we have to untangle some of the social pathology that co-exists with poverty, without worrying about what causes what. It each causes each other..poverty leads to chaos, chaos leads to poverty. If you clean up the drugs and crime out of a neighborhood, resources, including jobs, will most likely flow in. Thrift shops and coffee shops and small groceries so life becomes easier. More bus routes. Better fire service. taxi drivers so you can get in and out. What is wrong with any of this? I am not interested in being abused over this but know that I will be. But abuse me for what I say, not what I do not say, or that you presume I am secretly thinking. mg