In hard times, Americans blame the poor

[undeterred]

By Alfred Lubrano
Inquirer Staff Writer

Last month, Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer of South Carolina said that when the government helps the poor, it's like people feeding stray animals that continually "breed." And just last week, Colorado state legislator Spencer Swalm said poor people in single-family homes are "dysfunctional." Both statements riled some Americans from the Piedmont to the Rockies and underscored a widely held belief: In tough times, people are tough on the poor.

In an April 2009 poll by the Pew Research Center in Washington, 72 percent agreed with the statement that "poor people have become too dependent on government assistance programs." That's up from 69 percent in 2007.

"The economic downturn has made the middle class less generous toward others," said Guy Molyneux, a partner at Hart Research Associates, a Washington firm that researches attitudes toward the poor. "People are less supportive of the government helping the poor, because they feel they're not getting enough help themselves. "It's a divided country, splitting on a fault line: those who think the poor are poor because they don't try enough, and those who think the poor simply need help."

Matt Wray, a sociologist at Temple University, agreed: "Hatred of the poor is fueled by the middle class's fear of falling during hard times." Americans don't understand how the poor are victimized by a lack of jobs, inefficient schools, and unsafe neighborhoods, experts say. "People ignore the structural issues - jobs leaving, industry becoming more mechanized," said Yale sociologist Elijah Anderson, renowned for his study of the Philadelphia poor. "Then they point to the poor and ask, 'Why aren't you making it?' "

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/84368242.html

[kestrel91316]

1. Funny, I totally blame the 21st century Robber Barons.

[Skittles]

3. same here; that's because people like us are enlightened

[Demeter]

13. So Do I, Must Mean We Aren't Americans, or UnAmericans

People who blame the poor are projecting their own faults on somebody below them.

[DJ13]

2. Typical shortsightedness by our middle class

The way the economy is going, they might end up needing the very services they would support reducing.

[depakid]

6. Many of them will end up exactly what they decry

through their own electoral actions and choices.

[Pakhet]

18. and when that happens

they will demand the very help that they would deny others. I know, I've seen it in my sister and her family. All my family, really. Quite all right for them to get free or reduced cost medical care, but damned if anyone else should. really pisses me off.

[proudohioan]

12. Yeah, it happened to me.....

and quite quickly, too, I might add.

However, I was never one to bash or blame the poor; I just never thought that I would be in the situation that I'm in now.

[izquierdista]

4. Give mirrors to the poor

So they can hold them up to the people pointing.

[PDJane]

5. I blame a lot of things.........

but one of those things that is to blame for the attitude is the American THING about paying taxes. Those taxes pay for education and jobs in places like the nordic countries. It's a way of sharing the wealth, and it's necessary. Taxes are the price one pays for living in a civilized society.

[babylonsister]

7. Rec'd, because it's so unfair, but it's happening. The middle class

blame the poor, and the rich skate.?

[troubledamerican]

8. A r b e i t - M a c h t - F r e i

[Zoeisright]

9. Stupid is as stupid does.

These idiots have to have someone 'below' them on the economic scale to hate to make them feel better. How unbelievably dumb. They are getting ripped off by the rich and feeling sorry for the rich at the same time.

This country is just plain done.

[Tutankhamun]

10. I've had that feeling more and more lately -- the feeling that we really are done.

We are a stupid country, and it's a stupidity that perpetuates and even augments itself. For example, hatred of taxes creates a poor educational system which creates an even dumber populace which then votes more Republican which creates even poorer schools, while further demonizing them book learnin' elites and on and on...

[winyanstaz]

11. K & R......

I don't think that is a case of AMERICIANS blaming the poor but of out of touch "elites/aka: political sell-outs to the corporations that are blaming everyone else except themselves for the mess they made.

[raccoon]

14. For the record, some in SC hate Bauer, and his mean-spirited

resurrection of the "welfare queen" myth. Unfortunately, a lot of dumbasses will buy into his crap.

[montanto]

15. In good times too.

[Doctor_J]

16. This is how the Repukes keep the proletariat from lynching people like Boner

Complete media control and full-scale class warfare.

[Berry Cool]

17. Some middle-class people are afraid that there is no real difference between themselves and the poor

except sheer luck. They can't bear to believe that--it's too scary--so they tell themselves that the reason poor people are poor is that they're lazy and stupid and don't want to work, and they themselves are not poor because they worked hard and sacrificed to get to where they are.

They will be sadly disillusioned if they end up losing what they have through no fault of their own.

[Hello_Kitty]

19. I actually agree that the poor are too dependent on government programs, but for different reasons.

Most public assistance goes to people who work, which means that their employers are externalizing a lot of the cost of their workers onto taxpayers. That's why every time someone blathers about gubmint money going to poor people I ask them if they're planning to go out and picket corporate headquarters demanding they pay a living wage and provide benefits.

[TrogL]

20. Blame Fundamentalist Christianity - Prosperity Gospel

It's a classic circular argument. Rich people are good because good people are rich. Poor people are bad because bad people are poor.