If someone is in poor health because they are very overweight, do you blame the obesity? Or do you attribute it to poor choices about diet and lifestyle? What would be the best solution? Diabetes and blood pressure medicine? Or less eating and more exercise?
When we see children who are failing academically, getting involved with gangs and drugs, do we blame poverty? Or do we attribute it to bad choices that they and their parents have made? What would be the best solution? Hand out money to compensate for their distress? Or discourage more bad behavior?
Why, of course, we blame poverty! We hand out money and make excuses for the bad behavior choices. The fact of the matter is that poverty is a symptom, not a condition that you catch like a virus. In the US at least you are very unlikely to be poor if you do three things:
- Graduate from high school (it's free and graduating these days has pretty much become a "won't do", not a "can't do").
- Get a job -- any job.
- Get married -- and have children (in that order).
If you blame the headache and take aspirin, you're going to continue having hangovers.
If you keep eating and not exercising, you're going to be continue to be obese and have related health problems no matter how many drugs are prescribed.
If you keep encouraging people to have children without marriage (the entire welfare system discourages marriage), if you keep paying them not to work, you're going to continue having high levels of poverty.
Why do we keep blaming the symptoms and not the underlying behavioral causes? It must be that we're okay with the outcomes as long as we can just mitigate their pain. Take two aspirin. Repeat. Repeat.
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