Douglas J. Besharov, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, says: "There are social costs of being poor, though it is not clear where the cause and effect is. We know for a fact that on certain measures, people who are poor are often more depressed than people who are not. I don't know if poverty made them depressed or the depression made them poor. I think the cause and effect is an open question. Some people are so depressed they are not functional. 'I live in a crummy neighborhood. My kids go to a crummy school.' That is not the kind of scenario that would make them happy." Another effect of all this, he says: "Would you want to hire someone like that?"The quote comes from a Washington Post article - one of the recent articles I've seen out on the web detailing the ways in which you have to be rich to afford being poor!
I just used to quote because conservatives and their "economics" really angers me. That quote displays classic conservative apathy towards the poor. "It's not clear where the cause and effect is . . . Would you want to hire someone like that?" Yeah, it's not the fault of the invisible hand or anything like demonizing unions and deregulating the financial market that people who're poor pay more for stuff everyone else takes for granted. Take having a checking account. Initially, in can cost to open an account, but in the end, it's cheaper. But, what if you can't afford the initial cost?
