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May 2009

Examples of The Culture of Poverty and the Poverty Mindset

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In my prior post on my attendance of the Poverty Symposium, I mention the Culture of Poverty and the Poverty Mindset.  I did not want to get too side-tracked by getting to deep a discussion of the Culture of Poverty and the Poverty Mindset.

Danny Bivins of the Fanning Institute said that in looking at the “root causes”, they also wanted to be able to measure it and collect data on it.  That is fine as a statistical exercise but I am not going to absolve common sense and my personal encounters with people who come from a culture of poverty and have the poverty mindset.  It is all around us.  The Culture of Poverty and the Poverty Mindset IS a root cause because it is a belief and life system that must be changed for all the other social programs to work.  Otherwise, the symptoms of poverty will continue to persist.

People have to believe, be driven to get out of poverty, and become self-sufficient not just talk about it and assume money will solve all their problems.

Instead of a textbook discussion, I am going to make give some pointed examples of how I know it exists and reasonably prevalent.  Let me preface my statements by saying there are always exceptions to the rule and some rise above it all.  But many do not.

1.  As a property manager and landlord, I am accustomed to dealing with tenants of all types.  Many are good tenants but many are not so good either.  I tell everyone the same thing, if you get into trouble, call me, and send in what you have.  Some call, many do not.  It has nothing to do with money, it has everything to do with the willingness to communicate and face a problem and not putting their head in the sand.

2.  Each year, there are some tenants that put Christmas gifts and the top of the list and rent at the bottom of the priority list.

3.  There are many poorer people who have much nicer and larger TV’s than I do.  Many also have nicer tire rims than I do on my car.

4.  How many lottery winners have we heard from over the years that said the money ruined them and that they were worse off than if they had not won the money?  It wasn’t the money.  It was their inability to become financially knowledgeable or responsible.  They were too worried about spending and impressing others with their new-found wealth than to learn to save or invest. Boxing champion Mike Tyson is fundamentally poverty-conscious despite the many millions he made over the years.  Yet, he went bankrupt years ago.

5.  I know tenants who intentionally keep their income low so that they can continue to get government assistance in their housing and food stamps.  Most people I know would do it as a very last resort, it it even came to that.  And if they did resort to that, they would do everything they could to get off government assistance.

6.  Poor people put a high priority in having cash on hand.  They do pocket accounting. What cash they have in their pocket is often how they manage their money.  They also seem to do better with cell phones with pre-paid minutes.  It seems they cannot self-control the minutes they use and so a billing system does not work for them.  They do not like checking accounts because it requires financial management.  The credit system is foreign to poor people.

7. The Internet and the digital world is entirely foreign to most poor people.  It is simply too abstract and non-tangible for them.  No one has shown them or educated them.  The digital divide is alive and well.  Anyone who can find and read this blog mostly likely did not come from the culture of poverty.  But that does not mean poor people couldn’t.  After all most public libraries have computers with Internet access.

These are some real-life examples that the Poverty Mindset exists and that the cycle of poverty can be very difficult to break because the value system is passed on from one generation to the next.  Also, people have a tendency to be friends and associate with others that have a similar value system.  Thus, the poor have other poor friends who have a similar poverty mindset.

Instead of just throwing money and offering more services, we need to provide more educational and mentorship programs that teach people how to adopt a new set of life values, life skills, and an entrepreneurial work ethic.  Hard work is not enough.  Working smart with leverage are concepts have to be introduced.

I may update this article as I learn more about the issue and culture of poverty.

Comments on the Poverty Symposium

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Last Thursday, I attended the 2nd Annual Poverty Symposium organized by Enrichment Services Program Inc., a Georgia non-profit organization.

It was interesting that I had received an invitation to this free event. It turns out that I received an invitation because of my prior attendance of last year’s Jim Blanchard Leadership Forum. In that event, it attracted many people from both the private and public sectors who had an interest in leadership and the future of business.

I was impressed that someone would create an event and assemble an interesting roster of attendees to discuss the issue local poverty.  Local politicians, representatives, public agencies, and non-profit organizations appeared to be the target audience.  Whereas I, representing small business in the private sector, seemed to be in the small minority.

Although the Poverty issue is certainly not the most exciting or inspiring subject to learn and think about, I am not oblivious of its impact locally, regionally, nationally, and even globally.  Poverty affects everyone even the affluent, wealthy, and the rich.

Unlike presidential candidate John Edwards, who made it a major issue in his campaign, I do not think that government and non-profit organizations can themselves solve this problem.  They can provide some funding and services to assist in the effort and deal with the symptoms but fundamentally, businesses and private sector must ultimately get involved to make a huge difference.

Danny Bivins of The Fanning Institute at the University of Georgia in Athens was the opening moderator of a Panel Discussion that included representatives from the Housing Authority of Columbus GA, United Way, Columbus Public Library, and Open Door Community House.

It was interesting because I have interacted with each of these agencies to various degrees through my normal course of business.  I listened as to what their opinions were regarding the local poverty issue.

A big part of the Panel discussion was finding and acknowledging the “root causes” of poverty, not simply the symptoms.  Issues such as high school education, affordable housing, diversity, home ownership, teen pregnancy, and marriage were all touched upon as “so-called” root causes.

In my mind, I agreed with much of what they said but I also disagreed with a good portion of it.  Most of the issues were politically-correct discussions that avoided the central and politically-charged issue:  the Culture of Poverty.

In the audience, were a few people that were beneficiaries of government programs and non-profit organization services.  So much of the day’s discussion focused on what the government, non-profit organizations, legistlation, and social programs could do help.  There was almost NO discussion on what the private sector and businesses could do to help.  There was also almost NO discussion of personal responsibility of what people in poverty needed to do to pull themselves out of poverty.

In the Poverty Symposium attendee folder, the Shriver Center included a packet that supposedly graded politicians and their performance in fighting poverty.  Not surprisingly, Republicans got failing grades and Democrats got excellent grades.  It was based on voting records on what the Shriver Center perceives as important bills to combat poverty.  From what I could see, there was little regard to the costs of each social program.  I have no doubt each bill have merit but I thought to myself, who pays for every single program that is going to be proposed?

In any case, it quickly appeared to me that the packet by the Shriver Center was clearly Democrat-leaning.  For the record, I classify myself as an Independent.  I cannot classify myself as a traditional Republican or a traditional Democrat.  I disagree enough with both parties to keep myself Independent.

Although Congressmen and Senators were invited, none attended in person.  Young representatives of each politician’s office were there to make their presence known.

Deborah Weinstein of the Coalition on Human Needs, concluded the day with her perspective on the national level. Admittedly, she said each community must do their part to deal with the poverty issue.  Not everything could be handled on the national level.  I agreed with her. But in her presentation, there appeared to be a “hole” in her presentation.

Like her non-profit peers, the focus seems to provide more services and more government programs.  Being patient for most of the day, I finally tried to ask a question regarding why there was no discussion about how businesses and the private sector could be involved in a way that didn’t always require donating money.  It seems that all businesses and private sector are good for are money donations which somewhat offended my sensibilities.

I also desperately wanted to know why no one wanted to tackle the Culture of Poverty and the Poverty Mindset which is ultimately what keeps many people poor, not necessarily the lack of services or opportunity.

Ultimately, a woman who came from poverty and a beneficiary of non-profit services got more “air-time” than others who had resources and fresh ideas to offer.

After the program ended, I had the opportunity to speak to Junie Christian who was a Host of the Poverty Symposium and Belva Dorsey, Executive Director of Enrichment Services Program.  I asked about why there was almost no discussion of the Culture of Poverty issue.

I brought up the well-known saying “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”  Quite simply, I wondered why there are not more educational programs that deal with this.

I also shared the well-known tales of lottery winners who come into a lot of money through their winnings but ultimately run their lives into the ground.  They do so not because they never had the chance to get money, they do so because they fundamentally are poverty-cultured.

They were surprisingly pleasant and engaged my discussion.  I told them I was also concerned about the poverty issue but my “small business” and entrepreneurial perspective vastly differed from the non-profit sector’s approach. Nevertheless, I told them I was willing to keep an open mind to any information they might have since I cannot claim to be an expert on the poverty issue.

All in all, I did not regret my time at the Poverty Symposium.  It did give me a different perspective on the poverty issue and it gave me time to reflect on how I might do my part to help.  But I did know that I wasn’t going to simply throw money on the problem.

It should be interesting to see what happens now going forward