Advice to the Poor
I spent years in social work. Virtually nothing worked because, social workers didn’t believe in much. Traditional values were postponed while everyone got dewy-eyed over ‘love, caring, compassion, and reaching out.’
Remember many social workers:
- Have never been poor nor lived in a slum.
- Think the government owes everyone a living.
- Put down unskilled work (flipping hamburgers, etc.) as ‘menial’.
- Feel sorry for bums and criminals and ignore decent, working people.
- Are sure poor Americans cannot get ahead, yet are sure poor immigrants will get ahead.
- Try to push the poor into college when they generally don’t have the interest and often drop or flunk out.
- Promise to rebuild riot torn areas, but don’t.
- Get too soapy and buddy-buddy.
- Have no business sense – no address on the building, no sense of time, bottom line, efficiency, etc.
- Don’t look for the difference between poverty caused by bad luck and poverty caused by foolishness.
- Think they are Robin Hood, talk psycho-babble and talk forever. – Know more, but you often know better.
Some have more problems than the poor and promote the following myths:
| Myths | Reality |
| Being near another ethnic group brings goodwill | Some. |
| Discrimination is the main obstacle to minority advancement | False. The Japanese and the Jews progressed the most when most discriminated against. |
| Being Black holds one back | Not Blacks from the Caribbean. |
| Whites have a monopoly on prejudice | Everyone has some prejudices about color, age, class, ethnicity, gender, income, education, occupation, race, religion, accents, lifestyles, etc. |
| The poor can leapfrog unskilled work with education and credentials | Terrible advice, as every poor group that got ahead in the U.S. did so by taking unskilled work. |
| All social programs help | False. Rent control is unfair and creates a housing shortage; welfare breaks up families and sets the welfare poor against the working poor. |
A good social worker is sensible, clean cut, uses plain language, is like an agent (not a buddy), has something practical to offer, and meets you only part way. He understands your situation, but doesn’t encourage you to feel sorry for yourself,
