h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The usual suspect's at it again:

"Poverty is directly linked to idleness though"

I'm sure you won't have to look too hard to figure out which thread I'm referring to.

Care to attempt, once again, to enlighten him? Especially as it doesn't sound like hard work is something he's had much more than a nodding acquaintance with. Or do you suspect, as I do, it's really a lost cause and a waste of effort to engage him?

I might have a go, if I can be bothered and have lots of time to waste. But I'm not sure it's worth wasting my time on.

Jaysus wept! The poor work *much* harder than the wealthy.

Yeah, I haven't any time to waste, not to mention lots. Because I'm too busy working hard, and not getting especially wealthy.

Kee-rist!

"I hope no one is going to tout the line that social inequality is linked to crime. Because the evidence suggests otherwise."

You're right: it's not worth the effort. Some people are willfully ignorant.

The man's an idiot, and that's all there is to it. I'd have a go at him on the basis of 13 years w*rking in social welfare, but I've a feeling my input would be dismissed as coming from a mere colonial. (Sometimes I'm glad I have no anglo-celtic ancestry whatsoever.)

Sorry for dropping in unannounced...

Not at all- you both have direct experience, in one way or another, with dealing with plenty of hard working, non-affluent folks. We have plenty of those here, too. My experience comes not from working in social services, but from having worked my arse off for 20 years and only just attaining a reasonable fascimile of comfortable within the past year or so.

What really frustrates me is the view that poverty-stricken people *choose* to be that way. Sure, there might be a small cross-section of benefits recipients who'd rather accept a lower standard of living in exchange for not having to work... but in my entire life I've only met one person who thought that way- this person's parents had been wealthy, s/he should have been left an inheritance instead of expected to earn a living. Most of the people I've known with a sense of entitlement have come from a background of money aplenty.

And I've never met a lazy poor person, either. Most of the lazy people I encounter are better paid than I am.

Where I w*rk, high salaries are reserved for idiots rather than lazy people.

He's foolish to get onto criminology. I have more arguments than he can get out of the 'specialist' magazines he so obviously reads.

I know you have many well-reasoned arguments on the subject- that's why I was hoping you'd comment. I tend not to comment on such topics, as no matter whether I add anecdotal experience or statistical info, it just invites an all new round of American-bashing.