Mg, you must think that abuse & poverty are twins, they're not. Drug abuse & gambling, abusive drinking may have "some" roots in poverty but not spousal, phyical or mental abuse. That's a different horse & color, all classes suffer from that, the rich can get away with hiding it better that's all. Your hung up in the wrong places. Beating your wife, kicking the dog & raping you girlfriends daughter is not poverty driven. What a misconseption you have of the poor. Poverty breeds self abuse, sure enough & drug use to be sure & crime, yup but poverty does not breed sexual predators & spousal abuse, get a grip. You take hope & intellect away, we've been here before, & you get to a place where the community falls apart & fails, becomes dangerous, criminal & violent. Now put a wall around that & you've put us back into the dark ages. Again you set up a national education program where everybody can use it no matter your income, a health & welfare system that includes a free national health plan for any that can't afford it, you set up child care for those that can't afford it, then you can say that there's a start on the war on poverty, illiteracy & infant mortality, homelessness, crime, drug abuse. You set up a fair employment agency & a dept of labor that has not just the interests of business in mind but also the welfare of the work force then you can say that there's a war on poverty. You want gettos & you'll get more of the same only worst, you'll have a black market underground society that makes fiction look like a party.
Why the focus on boyfriends living with the poor girl? I think there are bigger issues than who chooses to shack up with who, again education is the first step in making good judgement calls, not some ban on what is a natural. Boyfriends, I can't believe that anyone would make that an issue. Is it ok for the rich girl or guy just cause she or he can afford to be the sugar daddy. Your standards are double standards, warped, selfish & not real. Why don't you declare saying no to sex altogether maybe that will prevent unwanted pregnancies in our youth, wait is that a poverty driven issue? Nope, that's an educational issue. That's like Reagan's war on drugs "just say no" or his fight against AIDS, "just say no". Education, education, education. The poor aren't stupid, undereducated maybe, lack the resources, yes, trying to hard in their struggle to survive most certinally. You don't want an excuse for poverty, neither do I, there really is no excuse for it in this country. We have some of the best educational facilities in the world and we're to stupid or selfish to allow those in need of them most the access to them. Well ignorance costs a hell of a lot more & most of the ignorance comes from those that would deny the poor the ability to get a head & rise beyond their stated place in life. Nothing like an education & a helping hand. Give me a fish today & I'll be hungry tomorrow, teach me how to fish & I'll never go hungry again, give me a dollar today & I'll be broke tomorrow, educate me & I'll never have to ask you again for a handout.

Then there's Dickey saying how great the business world is doing. I couldn't agree more, they're making profits hand over fist, they're investing like crazy but to who's benifit not the underclass that floats them with their sweat & their unfair tax breaks. Industry is doing just dandy while the little guys dying to keep the it in business. It's kind of like the company stores all over again. You work to produce a product you can't afford to buy yourself, you go into hock just to get by & then you can't even pay off the interest, you're owned by big government & big business. You try to attend a school "to learn to earn" & end up having to take a back seat on the bus ride home carrying an empty lunch pail.

Time for me to go have a nightmare, good night.

Barry