What Mother Teresa Says About Poverty

It is poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish" So said Mother Teresa of Calcutta, a woman who spent a lifetime in service to the poor.One would think that the current economic downturn would stir a national debate about the problems that this economy creates for impoverished children.However, we don't hear so much about the culture of poverty these days. Perhaps it's because the market turmoil is making us all feel like we're a little poorer. When we're feeling poorer, we're in a less giving mood.For decades, social scientists, policy wonks, and politicians have studied and debated the culture of poverty. There's general agreement that the poverty class is set apart from the mainstream of society, not only by their income, but also by their behavior, a subject about which I spend much time writing blog entries.Social scientist, policy wonks, and politicians don't live in housing projects, slum apartments, or the rural farming communities rc air swimmers of the Appalachia, but they do inhabit environments that are completely bridged-off socially from the rest of us. They convene in their secluded worldand because they are disconnected from the hardships that ordinary Americans live with every day, they have become woefully out of touch with working class families. I think air angry bird it's fair to say they don't have a clue what it is like to be a child growing up in poverty.The prevalence of bad behavior in the underclass is part of an overall culture that condemns impoverished children to repeat the mistakes of their parents. It is, in fact, a big problem that is the source of a tremendous drain on our national treasury. Government assistance programs continuously lower the standards and expectations for rehabilitating victims of the culture of poverty. As a result, our so-called war on poverty has effectively socialized the costs of dysfunctional behavior.If the political class really wants to understand the culture of poverty that threatens American values and taxes our national resources, they should move into one of the subsidized housing projects and stay there for a while. They'll learn everything they need to know about poverty, if they can survive the experience. Also looming is the effect of cutbacks caused by huge deficits in state and federal budgets. The distraction caused by fiscal crisis's will further take the focus away from those who need help the mostthe children of the poor.The economic crisis has hit the middle class hard and that seems to be the primary focus RC Air Swimmers of our national debate these days. The upper class is unscathed by this crisis and will find ways to get even richer. But, we don't hear much about the poverty class because we're not feeling good about the economy and we're not in a giving mood.The children are our future. For better or worse, they're headed our way.