Back when I was in my early twenties I spent several years coaching in kids in the projects. One of supervisors enraged me by saying one day, "Poverty is not caused by lack of money." I thought, as I have said before, it was the stupidest thing I had ever heard. What else could cause poverty? It took me a decade to realize that he knew what he was talking about and I didn't.
But that presents us with a huge problem. For we should love and care for the disadvantaged but the easiest, and therefore our favourite, response, which is to say giving them money, doesn't actually do much good. In a lot of cases, giving money makes things worse.
So what do you do? Rather, What should I do? I'll be honest, I don't know.
Here is an image of poverty.
The people responsible for that mess might not strike you as poor if you met. And they aren't in the conventional sense of the word. They are among the most privileged and pampered class of people in the history of the world. They are university students.
That is the third pile of crap that has shown up in front of that house in the last three days. This load originally featured another gas barbecue besides the one you can see. The first, with partially full propane tank attached, still worked. They also threw out a working cooler in the shape of a Red Bull can, a whole lot of Ikea furniture, including a chair that was brand new and another child's pool (that green thing on the top is the second such pool). It was a much bigger pile yesterday but scavengers have picked off the stuff with obvious resale value such as the working gas barbecue and propane tank.
The pools were used to put beer on ice during the parties they hosted. They didn't host a lot of parties but when they did the whole neighbourhood knew about it, as did the police who were inevitably called to break them up.
The first two piles were created by the students themselves as they dumped stuff it was too much trouble to move by the curbside as they headed out. Those piles were also picked over by scavengers as much of the stuff still had monetary value. This third pile was the work of the crew the landlord had to hire to clean up the mess after they had gone.
There are, by the way, two charities that regularly swing through the neighbourhood with trucks who will pick up stuff like this. It never seems to occur to the university students who rent here to call them. Some students make a lot of noise about community and caring for the poor but you see very little evidence of concern for others in their actions. University students give less money to charities and do less volunteer work than just about any other group in our society even though they have more discretionary income and more free time than just about any other group in our society.
Students also still make a lot of noise about how poor and disadvantaged they are if you can believe it.
They all had cars. One of the kids was given a luxury SUV to go to school with. They drove too fast even though they were lousy drivers; one of them couldn't back out of the driveway without hitting another car and ended up having to park on the street all the time as a consequence..
Their parents looked very unhappy when they came to pick them up. Some of the students left quite early in the summer because they had not done well at school. The remaining students had to move at the end of summer because their landlord refused to renew the lease. The last few, to their credit, looked quite chastened as they left.
I find it particularly interesting because my church is sponsoring a refugee family who left a warn-torn country with nothing but what they could put in a suitcase. By any conventional definition of poverty, they should be poor. And yet they are not. They have hit the ground running and are well on their way. The students responsible for the mess above, on the other hand, strike me as very poor indeed. They don't need money, they need direction. They need adults with authority to step in and impose order and rules on them. Bot their parents and the universities have abrogated their responsibilities in that regard.
But that presents us with a huge problem. For we should love and care for the disadvantaged but the easiest, and therefore our favourite, response, which is to say giving them money, doesn't actually do much good. In a lot of cases, giving money makes things worse.
So what do you do? Rather, What should I do? I'll be honest, I don't know.
Here is an image of poverty.
The people responsible for that mess might not strike you as poor if you met. And they aren't in the conventional sense of the word. They are among the most privileged and pampered class of people in the history of the world. They are university students.
That is the third pile of crap that has shown up in front of that house in the last three days. This load originally featured another gas barbecue besides the one you can see. The first, with partially full propane tank attached, still worked. They also threw out a working cooler in the shape of a Red Bull can, a whole lot of Ikea furniture, including a chair that was brand new and another child's pool (that green thing on the top is the second such pool). It was a much bigger pile yesterday but scavengers have picked off the stuff with obvious resale value such as the working gas barbecue and propane tank.
The pools were used to put beer on ice during the parties they hosted. They didn't host a lot of parties but when they did the whole neighbourhood knew about it, as did the police who were inevitably called to break them up.
The first two piles were created by the students themselves as they dumped stuff it was too much trouble to move by the curbside as they headed out. Those piles were also picked over by scavengers as much of the stuff still had monetary value. This third pile was the work of the crew the landlord had to hire to clean up the mess after they had gone.
There are, by the way, two charities that regularly swing through the neighbourhood with trucks who will pick up stuff like this. It never seems to occur to the university students who rent here to call them. Some students make a lot of noise about community and caring for the poor but you see very little evidence of concern for others in their actions. University students give less money to charities and do less volunteer work than just about any other group in our society even though they have more discretionary income and more free time than just about any other group in our society.
Students also still make a lot of noise about how poor and disadvantaged they are if you can believe it.
They all had cars. One of the kids was given a luxury SUV to go to school with. They drove too fast even though they were lousy drivers; one of them couldn't back out of the driveway without hitting another car and ended up having to park on the street all the time as a consequence..
Their parents looked very unhappy when they came to pick them up. Some of the students left quite early in the summer because they had not done well at school. The remaining students had to move at the end of summer because their landlord refused to renew the lease. The last few, to their credit, looked quite chastened as they left.
I find it particularly interesting because my church is sponsoring a refugee family who left a warn-torn country with nothing but what they could put in a suitcase. By any conventional definition of poverty, they should be poor. And yet they are not. They have hit the ground running and are well on their way. The students responsible for the mess above, on the other hand, strike me as very poor indeed. They don't need money, they need direction. They need adults with authority to step in and impose order and rules on them. Bot their parents and the universities have abrogated their responsibilities in that regard.
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