Nothing like people pulling up the ladder behind them

Reader comment on: Thomas Sowell on Poverty
in response to reader comment: Swallow your vomit

Submitted by ben (United States), Aug 3, 2011 20:22

I feel even more negatively towards Sowell. A myth on the right is always that if one person can pull themselves up by their bootstraps, then why can't everyone - it is a convenient way to paper over the very real problems of racism and entrenched interests that still exists. The deck in this country is still stacked against poor and minority people. It is great that he was able to make it despite the long odds, but he must be able to see that we have systemic problems with inequality in this country despite the occasional poor kid who makes it (or rich kids who ends up strung out on drugs).

I would agree with you that poor people in other countries live far worse than poor people in our country, but that is an argument to help poor in other countries, not to cut off those struggling here in the USA. We give far too little money to help developing countries and surely could do more (and yes, there are helpful things that we could do).

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