Home > Insight

In Response > Letters to the editor:

Only the poor themselves can fix poverty problem

RE: Poverty fix not easy

By Alexander Wood

I believe you are gravely mistaken in your article. Fixing poverty is not just a difficult task, but it is one that will never be fixed.

Most of the homeless individuals in America simply want to be just a lazy bum on the street. I realize that there are people out there that are down on their luck or just had a hard time in their life, but the majority of the homeless in America do not want to take the steps necessary to pull themselves up. There are so many programs out there to help the homeless, but they are largely not taken advantage of, or if they are, the majority of the time they are kicked out of the program because of drug or alcohol abuse.

If you just give someone on the street a dollar, what is their incentive to strive for something more and to get a job? Are they going to use that dollar you give them to save up and buy some clothes at ARC or Goodwill so they can get a job? No, more than likely it will be used on cigarettes, alcohol or drugs.

Don’t get me wrong, I firmly believe in helping out your fellow man. I give money every month to a charity that helps children in Bangladesh, and 85 percent of every dollar I give goes directly to the children. I also believe that there are too many opportunities in America to give every homeless person you see on the street money. They need to take and learn responsibility and that will not happen through handouts.

Alexander Wood, Metro student awood13@mscd.edu