Poverty in America Part 4: Causes of Poverty-where to focus

In the previous part of this series, we looked at just how poor are the "poor" in this country. In many ways they are no different than any of the middle class if you look at "things" that they have and their ability to put food on the table and to pay their bills.

But, there is no denying that the people we classify as "poor" do not have the financial resources that many middle-class folks have and they seem to have fewer skills to deal with the challenges of modern life.

We try to "fix" their "poverty" with vast Federal and State government programs to address their "needs". But do these programs do anything to really lift them from perpetual poverty? That's hard to answer unless we know what the Causes of Poverty Are!

Causes of Systemic Poverty

In today's wretched economy, a job loss along with an "upside-down mortgage" could lead to a situation of temporary poverty. That is not what we are talking about here. What are the causes of systemic, generational poverty in America?

In a Heritage Foundation Study (Heritage Foundation.com), the chief causes of systemic poverty are;

1. Lack of work: the typical poor family with children only produces 800 hours of work per year. If this were raised to 2,000 hours per year (40 hours per week), it is estimated that 75% of poor children would be lifted out of poverty.

2. Unwed births: as of 2007 nearly 1.5 million out of wedlock births per year were recorded. Nearly all of these will result in children living in poverty.

3. Father absence: nearly two thirds of poor children live in fatherless homes.

So, the causes of poverty and the means to reduce poverty come down to two strong Christian ethics: hard work and marriage!

And yet, if you go back to an earlier part of this series which listed all the "anti-poverty" means-tested programs maintained by Federal and State Governments, NOT ONE OF THOSE PROGRAMS ADDRESSES THE ISSUE OF CONSISTENT WORK HOURS OR STABLE FAMILY ENVIRONMENTS.

So, are we really trying to help people get out of systemic poverty, or are we just trying to perpetuate favored government programs and liberal thinking?