Opportunity Economics and The American Dream Part 1

I recently watched the Republican Debate held in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and I am completely certain that any normal person with an average education would have walked away from this event feeling deeply disturbed and probably offended. The reason I say this is because of the shameless racism demonstrated by the audience and the blatant exploitation of that racism by Newt Gingrich, who defended his statement about ending child labor laws so poor kids in urban areas can "learn what a paycheck is," or something incredibly condescending and racist like that.

This display of ignorance and bigotry from Gingrich stirred up a great level of controversy because of the clear disdain that it expresses towards the poor and more particularly, the African American people who live in our impoverished inner cities --but in South Carolina it received a standing ovation, Yee Hah! Newt Gingrich was exploiting a long held stereotype that black people are a group of people who don't understand what it means to work for a living. What is most disturbing about this stereotype is that it is a widely held view among many conservatives, who believe that black people have been oppressed by liberal policies that keep them dependent on the government and because of the "failed" policies of liberals, are unaware of what it means to work for a living and earn a paycheck.

As someone who grew up in poverty with a single-parent on welfare, I know first hand that this stereotype is not true. It is an irrefutable fact that nobody has a greater initiative to work hard than a person who experiences a life of poverty. Newt Gingrich may think that poor people need him to come teach them about what a paycheck is but that's because Newt Gingrich, along with the rest of his party, is out of touch with reality. As a person who has lived most of his life on the bare essentials of existence I have one objective, to give my children a better life than I had. I, along with the overwhelming majority of poor people who share my objective, understand that in order to achieve this, hard work will be required. That is the sentiment of poor people who are shunned by many of their fellow Americans as lazy; even as they work multiple jobs just to pay their bills and struggle to put food on the table. Republicans keep telling poor people to blame themselves for being poor and not having jobs, as they implement and propose the very policies that send jobs overseas and eliminate opportunities for poor people to get a leg up in society. One thing about poverty is abundantly clear, it is not the result of the lack of work ethic.