Thursday, September 20, 2018

Attitudes Toward The Poor, Increase In the Number of the Poor and Hard Times

Attitudes Toward The Poor, Increase In the Number of the Poor and Hard Times\
Bernard Pyron


Attitudes Toward The Poor, Increase In the Number of the Poor and Hard Times

Revelation 11: 18 says “And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is
come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that
thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the
saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest
destroy them which destroy the earth.”

Destroy is from Strong’s number 1311, diaphtheiro, “...to ruin,
corrupt, destroy, perish.”

The environment - the physical world - is ruined and corrputed by
harmful chemicals, and in other ways. Toxins are in our food, air and
water, so that more and more people have cancer or other degenerative
diseases and die young. Chemicals in the water and food dumb people
down, so they are more easily controlled.

Economic recessions and eventually a great economic depression are a
a major cause of suffering. The number of poor people will increase a
great deal, as well as the number who are homeless who suffer more.
Wars and violence caused by divisions in society will be the source of
much more suffering.

The movements to abolish the American Christian and individual freedom based
dominance by a Marxist-leftist opposition are causing divisions in
society, which also leads to suffering.
I want to focus on the probable increase in the numbers of the poor
and of the homeless in the U.S.

"Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
4. Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the
wicked." Psalm 82: 3-4

“Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write
grievousness which they have prescribed; 2. To turn aside the
needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my
people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the
fatherless!” Isaiah 10: 1-2

The federal government and the society began first to deprive the poor
of their rights because the poor are generally more powerless and less
likely to resist than those with some money and position in society.

See: http://stateofworkingamerica.org/fact-sheets/poverty/

“Since 1973’s historical low of 11.1 percent poverty in the United
States, poverty rates generally rise during recessions and drop during
recoveries. The recovery following the 2001 recession, however, saw
poverty increase and then further explode during the Great Recession.”
“The official poverty rate is widely accepted as being inadequate in
capturing those whose earnings make it difficult to make ends meet. To
account for this, many cite the “twice poverty” rate, which is double
the threshold ($44,628 in 2010 for a family of four) and provides a
more accurate measurement of material deprivation. In 2010, the twice
poverty rate was 33.9 percent.”

“The further below the official poverty line you fall, the more
vulnerable you are. Nearly half (44.3 percent) of the poor are in deep
poverty (living on half or less of the official poverty line; this
deep-poverty threshold stood at $11,057 in 2010 for a family of
four).”

http://www.npr.org/…/fact-check-is-it-obamas-fault-that-pov…

“The most recent official count from the Census Bureau put the number
of Americans in poverty at 45.3 million as of 2013 (the most recent
year for which the census has measured poverty). That's not quite 5.5
million more people in poverty than there were in 2008, just before
Obama took office. So there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 6
million more people in poverty now than there were before Obama took
office.”

https://www.homeaidatlanta.org/helpnumbers.php

“83 percent of the cities surveyed reported an increase in
homelessness over the past year. On average, cities reported a 12
percent increase in homelessness in 2008.”
If another and worse economic recession begins in 2016 or 2017, the
number of poor people will increase a great deal - and soon after the
number of homeless will also increase.
In addition to the suffering of the poor from not having money to buy
food and shelter, etc, the non-poor may be prejudiced toward them.
Some research on attitudes toward the poor in America say that many
people believe lack of effort and negative personality characteristics
are the causes of poverty, rather than circumstances of a depression..
I have remembered what I thought might have been a lost and forgotten publication of mine in the seventies on attitudes of the non-poor toward the poor. What I
remembered was that a social psychologist in the University of
Wisconsin Psychology Department wrote about or mentioned to me
something I had written on this topic. I also remembered that a guy
who worked in the Social Science Library at Wisconsin showed me a book
in the seventies with a reference to my supposed publication on
attitudes toward the poor.

I found that supposed "forgotten and lost publication" on the Internet
yesterday. It was not a publication, but a research proposal to the
U.S. Dept. of Labor, for a grant to support a research project. The
proposal was dated December 6, 1968, Madison, Wisconsin, The
University of Wisconsin, Urban and Regional Planning Dept..
Although my research design was not funded, the
proposal is quoted on pages 82-83 of Chapter 3,
"The Culture of Poverty. What Does it Matter?" by Hylan
Lewis, in the book, The Poor:. A Culture of Poverty, or a
Poverty of Culture' J. Alan Winter, editor. (Grand Rapids,
Mich., William B. Eerdmans, Publisher, 1971.)

I have no idea how Hylan Lewis, a sociologist, got hold of a research
proposal of mine sent to the Department of Labor in 1968. .
My proposal was on the topic of attitudes of the non-poor toward the
poor, and probably was generally within the subject area of the
culture of poverty, which goes back to the work of Oscar Lewis, who
emphasized the poor having high divorce rates, with mothers and
children abandoned; and families headed by women, and that those in
this culture of poverty do not participate in community life or join
political parties; and make little use of banks, hospitals etc. I
could not find an online version of the 1971 book The Poor: A Culture
of Poverty Or A Poverty of Culture. My proposal was for a lab type
study of attitudes of the non-poor about the poor, but I don't remember
what it involved.

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