DELL GINES COMMENTARY: Bootstrapping, The Poor, And Public Policy: Who Is Accountable?

Asks the black moderate blogger, in response to new statistics showing that 12.6% of Americans live in poverty:

"What is the point you ask? The point is that individuals who argue that folks should not look at how big picture policy decisions effect people’s decision at the local level are foolish. My more specific point is that folks are being foolish when they argue that regardless of the condition of the economy in which they live in or the policies that effect their community the poor should be able to just ‘pull themselves up by their boot straps’.....We know certain community traits correlate high with poverty.

Among these corollaries are higher crime, higher unwed and teen pregnancies, shorter life expectancy, lower education levels, lower quality education, and less access to quality medicinal care. It is a statistically reality that plays itself out over and over again in poor communities.....So in regard to bootstrapping and this article, I am not even going to give a razzmatazz conclusion, I am simply going to toss out a few questions to ponder:

1. Did the poverty rate increase because 1.6 percent (3.9 million) of all people in America suddenly become less ‘bootstrapping’ or did macro policy decisions in the economic realm create conditions by which more folks became impoverished?

2. If more folks are in poverty, and the negative characteristics that correlate with poverty still occur, who bears greater responsibility for the negative characteristics, those who create bad policy decisions that create poverty knowing that negative characteristics correlate, or those in poverty themselves who have an inability to affect poverty decisions?

3. If there is such a racial disparity between poverty percentages (25% for blacks 12.6% per population) is this not an indicator of bad policy decisions in regard to blacks' position in America relative to the general population or is that 13% difference solely the result of blacks not being personally accountable, and not being bootstrappers?"