As I go back and read posts, it seems to me that Dickey is the pretty much the only person posting who focuses on the responsibility of one group to the total exclusion of other groups.

Give him two websites stock full of statistics, and complex analyses. He comes back with "Oh, look what I found! A table and an op-ed piece that agree with me." I don't know if that means he ignores all the rest, or if he simply considers it garbage and not worth considering.

Dickey, all by himself, doesn't much matter. On this thread, Dickey is a stand-in, shining example of the myoptic sight, and unwillingness to really grapple internally or intellectually with the inherent paradox that comprises the relationship between the individual and the group, and that insures a significant minority in a society that has enough to go around will be poor, regardless of how much responsibility they might take for themselves.


Root cause of poverty = lack of resources. Period. It doesn't matter where in the world or when in the world. It doesn't matter if it is only one person, one family, one community, one class, one nation or one continent. Poor = insufficient resources.

If no resources are anywhere are to be found, no amount of education, job skills, personal or societal action or acceptance of responsibility will fix it for anybody.

Things get complicated when resources and more than one person enter the picture. That is when power, values and personal choice come into play.

I just had a windo pop up that the 'puter is having problems. I'll stop here and hope this post is not lost when I hit submit.

Janie