Social scientists, economic developers and other charitably minded institutions are striving to eliminate poverty and create wealth for those bound in the cycle of poverty and despair. Can the poor be enabled to change their stars and rise to the ranks of the wealthy? Or do we really mean some other conditional state of livelihood for those transitioning from poverty?
Poverty is pretty well defined and understood. It's is numerically defined and we can reasonably discern it when we see it. We identify the poverty level to be at or below $23,580 per year for a family of four. Income levels even twice this mark are not devoid of economic struggles. For instance home ownership typically does not occur below $70k in household income. Home ownership is often an essential element of trans-generational wealth. Most families' net worth is tied in their homes. Yet many don't own any appreciating assets. Without some form of ownership true wealth is a unattainable ideal.
Wealth on the other hand is not as well founded definitionally and it can be easily disguised with debt, I'll-gotten game, temporal provision giving the appearance of wealth. Real wealth, or to be wealthy begins when one's passive income exceeds expenses. This is the state at which ones money works to sufficiently pay the bills while the owner need not work. The lifestyles of the rich and famous are characterized by extravagance and a disproportionate amount of leisure time. This kind of wealth is not derived from a day job, but from from the returns from productive or appreciating assets.
So when advocates of social justice seek to create wealth for the poor what do they really mean? Is it ownership, leisure time, income producing assets or just a higher standard of living. Would home ownership and above average savings approach a form of relative wealth? Or perhaps it can be found in a genuine hope of a higher standard of living for their children via higher levels of education. Jesus proclaimed that the poor would always be among us. This is in no way an absolution from genuine effort to lift one person or one family from the grips of hopelessness. Moreover, it is direction to the compassionate for our never ending responsibility to see and serve the less fortunate.
The cycle of poverty can be broken, and those liberated from inter-generational forces, can aspire to better economic habits and lifestyles. The true essence of poverty is the hopelessness that binds its victims for generations. Even without the empty promise of wealth it is well within our reach to sow hope of a progressive enhancement in ownership, quality of life and especially the part of the american dream which compels a generation to work and save in order to provided a better quality of life for our children.
references:
http://obamacarefacts.com/federal-poverty-level/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home-ownership_in_the_United_States
http://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/files/currenthvspress.pdf
http://www.deptofnumbers.com/income/us/
Wealth on the other hand is not as well founded definitionally and it can be easily disguised with debt, I'll-gotten game, temporal provision giving the appearance of wealth. Real wealth, or to be wealthy begins when one's passive income exceeds expenses. This is the state at which ones money works to sufficiently pay the bills while the owner need not work. The lifestyles of the rich and famous are characterized by extravagance and a disproportionate amount of leisure time. This kind of wealth is not derived from a day job, but from from the returns from productive or appreciating assets.
So when advocates of social justice seek to create wealth for the poor what do they really mean? Is it ownership, leisure time, income producing assets or just a higher standard of living. Would home ownership and above average savings approach a form of relative wealth? Or perhaps it can be found in a genuine hope of a higher standard of living for their children via higher levels of education. Jesus proclaimed that the poor would always be among us. This is in no way an absolution from genuine effort to lift one person or one family from the grips of hopelessness. Moreover, it is direction to the compassionate for our never ending responsibility to see and serve the less fortunate.
The cycle of poverty can be broken, and those liberated from inter-generational forces, can aspire to better economic habits and lifestyles. The true essence of poverty is the hopelessness that binds its victims for generations. Even without the empty promise of wealth it is well within our reach to sow hope of a progressive enhancement in ownership, quality of life and especially the part of the american dream which compels a generation to work and save in order to provided a better quality of life for our children.
references:
http://obamacarefacts.com/federal-poverty-level/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home-ownership_in_the_United_States
http://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/files/currenthvspress.pdf
http://www.deptofnumbers.com/income/us/
