3 Comments to 'Pete Stevens solves world’s most perplexing social ill in single op-ed column'
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Pete Stevens solves world’s most perplexing social ill in single op-ed column
Posted By katie allison granju
Leapfrogging past legendary minds ranging from Jesus to some of the world’s great economic thinkers, KNS columnist Pete Stevens appears to have single-handedly figured out what causes all poverty and exactly how to prevent it.
His prescription, herewith:
…the young-person formula for not being poor. First, graduate from high school, even a government school. Second, get and keep a full-time job, work hard and improve skills. Third, get married before bringing a child into the world, stay married and don’t have a child until it can be afforded - by you and with your money, not my money. I recommend teachers share this (data, not demagoguery) and discuss this with every freshman in high school. Except for someone with a major disability, poverty is a behavioral disorder. It’s a choice. Behaviors have consequences.
Jan 13th, 2008
Pete Stevens has never made a mistake. Good for him and the only other person to have never made mistakes, Jesus of Nazareth, who could not even minister in his home town because of the stigma of being a carpenter’s son. So perhaps Pete should go preach his vile gospel somewhere else.
To state that poverty is a choice is so asinine. True bad choices can impoverish a person, not true that poverty is a choice. Do people intend to screw up their life, Mr. Stevens? Are some people ever poised to recover from their learning curve of life better by their family affiliations? Children born to the “poverty choice makers” they decide to become and stay poor too?
Your a dolt Pete, a real cart horse with blinders on. Careful and not founder yourself on too much hate propaganda spewing from the mouths of Limbaugh, Coulter, and the like.
“KNS columnist Pete Stevens appears to have single-handedly figured out what causes all poverty and exactly how to prevent it.”
Well, no. He is talking about poverty IN AMERICA. You might disagree with his premise, but you should at least get his central argument right.
And bad choices do beget bad circumstances. Not that hard really… Einstein figured that out even with all his disabilities. Millions of poor people raise children who live successful lives… how does that happen? Luck? No, I don’t think so. More like helping their children to find a better life than the one they had - helping them find choices. I am the grandchild of 4 people who did not even graduate from middle school. I am the child of a full generation of college graduates in my aunts, uncles and parents. Good choices (and the consequences and examples of bad choices) were taught to me by my entire extended family. We were not shown that there was an easy way via welfare… We were taught to work hard, stay in school, and consider your choices carefully. What’s wrong with raising your children that way? More importantly, why is it that rearing your children in that fashion is almost exclusively the domain of the upper and middle class? I do not suffer from liberal guilt, though I am a political liberal. I do believe that all the government programs in the world are not going to give people what they need the most - the backbone and foresight to realize that real life is not easy or fair and hard work will be even harder if you do not get training and education. There, end of sermon. Hate me, hate my message, but the truth is there.