Ah, the response of a libbie-indoctrinated victim. Let's consider several of you (childish) points:
1) "...use others' research..." Um, yes. Are you opposed, in general, to citing the work of experts in a given field, substituting instead uninformed opinion (like yours)?
2) "...neither explains teh causes of poverty..." Um, did you READ the article? Clearly, a topic as complex as "poverty in America" cannot be fully explicated (means "explained," libbie) in so limited a space. The author's point is that THE MAJOR cause IS known, and has been, for years. It's illegitimacy. I quote, yet again, America's most-respected social scientist, James Q. Wilson:
"An individual need do only three things to avoid poverty...
Media personality Tavis Smiley and Princeton philosophy professor Cornell West have just published their latest contribution to American poverty propaganda, “The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto.”
The book should have a second subtitle: “How to keep the poor poor and blacks enslaved to government.” To the extent this book is taken seriously by anyone, the result can only be more, entrenched poverty.
Smiley and West’s message is simple. America today consists of a few powerful, rapacious rich people and a lot of unfortunate, exploited poor people. The rich are rich because they are lucky. The poor are...
? Finish high school
? Marry before having a child
? Produce the child after the age of 20
As Wilson observed, “Only eight percent of families who do this are poor; 79 percent of those who fail to do this are poor.”
Do you see ANY component of personal responsibility for one's outcome in that clear statement, libbie? Or is it all about the absence of "hopey-changey" handouts and redistribution from the productivre to the non-productive?
- Snark