If bad luck is the cause of poverty...

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  1. Kathryn L Hill profile image80
    Kathryn L Hillposted 9 years ago

    If bad luck is the cause of poverty...and the resulting inequality of wealth distribution,
    where does bad luck come from?
    God?
    Ourselves?
    The one percent?
    The wealthy?
    The globalists?
    Our parents?
    Governmental policies?
    The collective body of citizens?

    I prefer to blame it on God.
    Poverty is definitely God's fault! He put us here by kicking us out of Eden!
    Just Kidding.
    It is our own individual faults, (as in one's own fault.)
    Another short thread. What is there to argue?

    ( fault: 2. Responsibility for an accident or misfortune. Dictionary)

    Enjoy your day! smile

    1. B. Leekley profile image86
      B. Leekleyposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Your line of reasoning makes no sense. Luck by definition is something that happens either by random chance or due to some external and unavoidable force, such as The Fates or a drunk driver speeding through a red light.  Individual choice, effort, and ability have nothing to do with luck, good or bad.

      I don't suppose that one's circumstances are ever entirely one's one individual fault. Random chance and circumstances beyond one's power to influence are at least factors in any example that comes to my mind, as also is privilege or the lack thereof.

      While one's circumstances seem to usually be significantly (though rarely, if ever, entirely) due to one's fault, it is easy to imagine cases in which it is not a factor, such as an unavoidable accident.

      To presume to be immune from being forced into poverty by random chance or by personally unavoidable circumstances is hubris.

      Much of the poverty in the United States is due to the irresponsibility of business owners who weasel out of paying a living and fair wage. Pegging the minimum wage to the bare cost of living in a location and strengthening legal protections of the right of workers to unionize would decrease poverty a lot.

      1. Kathryn L Hill profile image80
        Kathryn L Hillposted 9 years agoin reply to this

        Bad luck is usually one's own fault on some level.
        There are two levels.
        1.  A practical level where mistakes have been made or risks taken that just don't pan out.
        2.  A spiritual level where life lessons are learned through experiences based on past actions.
        Luck
        "The definition of luck (or chance) varies by philosophical, religious, mystical, or emotional context of the one interpreting it; according to the classic Noah Webster's dictionary, luck is "a purposeless, unpredictable and uncontrollable force that shapes events favorably or unfavorably for an individual, group or cause". Yet the author Max Gunther defines it as "events that influence one's life and are SEEMINGLY beyond one's control." Dictionary
        Karma
        Karma (Sanskrit: कर्म; IPA: [ˈkərmə]; Pali: kamma) means action, work or deed; it also refers to the spiritual principle of cause and effect where intent and actions of an individual (cause) influence the future of that individual (effect). Good intent and good deed contribute to good karma and future happiness, while bad intent and bad deed contribute to bad karma and future suffering. Karma is closely associated with the idea of rebirth in some schools of Asian religions. In these schools, karma in the present affects one's future in the current life, as well as the nature and quality of future lives - or, one's saṃsāra." Wikipedia

        1. janesix profile image60
          janesixposted 9 years agoin reply to this

          That's great. Now you never have to help other people, because everything is their own fault.

          1. Kathryn L Hill profile image80
            Kathryn L Hillposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            you are the one that says life is hard and one must deal with it….
            weren't you?

            But, you know, when a fish is on land it flip-flops around…
            Fish do that. Cold fish who are struggling to breathe who, because of bad luck, have landed out of the water on land or a pier. Have you ever watched a fish on land with no way to breathe? It is a sad sight. I hate fishing myself. The poor fish just wants to swim freely in the water breathing by pulling in water through its well-designed gills, extracting all the oxygen it needs.
            no flip-flopping… just smooth swimming.. ahh…. the life of a fish.

            1. janesix profile image60
              janesixposted 9 years agoin reply to this

              Sure, for Americans or Europeans. We have it easy. Not so much for the rest of the world.

              1. Kathryn L Hill profile image80
                Kathryn L Hillposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                Yes, well I am talking about America since I live here and all.

                Of course I care about the rest of the world too. Don't get me wrong.

                And America has a legacy of being helpful to rest of the world because it CAN help the rest of the world Gee, now why is that?

                or should I say WAS that.

                Things are changing for the worse. Sad but true.
                I have no hope for the next election.
                How far do we have to fall to get to rock bottom?

                Wondering.

                1. janesix profile image60
                  janesixposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  It has nothing to do with elections. We are destroying the planet and using up all of the resources. I'd be more worried about that.

                  Don't you already have a lack of fresh water in California? Don't you realize this is only the beginning?

                  Better politicians aren't going to give you fresh water for your crops or drinking.

                  1. Kathryn L Hill profile image80
                    Kathryn L Hillposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                    So what do you think is the solution?

                          and what do you think is the problem?

  2. janesix profile image60
    janesixposted 9 years ago

    Is it the individual's fault that they're poor in somewhere like Haiti? Or would you say they are the victims of circumstance?

    It's hard to make it out of poverty where there are no jobs, and you live in a muddy sheet-metal hut with no electricity.

  3. Kathryn L Hill profile image80
    Kathryn L Hillposted 9 years ago

    Actually, I do not believe in random luck. Luck is karma, in my mind. Nothing in life is random. I am quite convinced of this. 
    I believe that karma or the law of cosmic justice is at work on a spiritual level in the world and that consequences for past actions can strike anyone at any time. Karma can influence what circumstances you are born into.
    Poverty, whether you have been born in Haiti or India or China or America, is pretty much one's karma. As Jesus said : We will always have the poor with us.

    Somtimes, good karma kicks in and you get a great job, inherit some money or win the lottery. If you do not live in America lucky breaks such as these may be harder to attain, nevertheless, you learn to make do and hopefully have a nice life anyway.


    In America when you are reaping karma on a spiritual level or suffering consequences on a worldly level, there is always the chance that you can rise again through self-determined effort. But, if one lives in a country where capitalism has diminished in favor of the despotism of socialism, one's opportunities to rise also diminish.

    In America, it is more one's own doing, than in other countries, if one lives and remains in poverty. But even here, it is sadly becoming less and less under our control due to gov't intrusions and expectations.

    Q.  Is it our karma to be losing our free market enterprise?
    What have we done to deserve such a fate?

    Nevertheless, we will learn to make do and hopefully have a nice life anyway.
    Yawn.

  4. Mark Johann profile image60
    Mark Johannposted 9 years ago

    Bad luck is when bad things happen we didn't expect. Bad luck is inevitable but not the cause of poverty. Poverty is when we stop striving hard to live.

    For me, bad luck is when we hurt other people and stop praying to our Creator for guidance. Thank you.

    1. Kathryn L Hill profile image80
      Kathryn L Hillposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Poverty is when our opportunities to strive hard are cut in two. What is accomplishing this?  Soft despotism which will become even harder if we let it.
      We will reap the karma of ignorance and laziness if we do not fight marxist principles which are creeping into this country.

      If one shop owner is not paying much in the way of wages another shop will.

      In a free market system liberty reigns and businesses flourish everywhere.

      Furthermore the shop owner, Mr. Wiseman, who pays better wages will attract better employees and his business will thrive and prosper.
      Mr. Greedbone's business will not.
      Sometimes a Son or daughter inherits Mr. Wiseman's business and becomes greedy and cruel.
      No one in the company is happy, but the greedy son or daughter. Eventually the company ceases to thrive. Will it be due to bad luck?

      I don't think so.

  5. gmwilliams profile image84
    gmwilliamsposted 9 years ago

    In developing nations, poverty is the fault of the exploitive classes who use the lower classes for slave and cheap level, paying them slave wages.  These exploitive classes keep the poor ignorant by not enforcing education beyond the primary level if that.   Such exploitive classes purposely want the poor to be uneducated and ignorant so they can have a very cheap labor force.   

    In the United States, poverty is caused by stupidity, mindlessness, negative consciousness, mindset, and psychology.  It is also caused by a poverty and scarcity consciousness, mindset, and psychology in addition to a philosophy of immediate gratification.  Poverty is based upon poor and selfish choices.  It is furthermore based upon making detrimental, even destructive choices.   It is based upon psychological ignorance that there is a better way and quality of life.  It is also the result of overreliance upon organized religion.  It is based upon being anti-achievement and anti-success.  It is based upon living at a survival, struggling level and seeing anything beyond that as intrinsically immoral, even wrong.

  6. Kathryn L Hill profile image80
    Kathryn L Hillposted 9 years ago

    " In developing nations, poverty is the fault of the exploitive classes who use the lower classes for slave and cheap level, paying them slave wages.  These exploitive classes keep the poor ignorant by not enforcing education beyond the primary level if that.   Such exploitive classes purposely want the poor to be uneducated and ignorant so they can have a very cheap labor force. "
    Y I K E S !

    1. janesix profile image60
      janesixposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I think it is more along the lines of US giving them free food all the time, helping them to produce more and more babies, live longer,and then not take care of themselves, or learn to use their own resources. The Green Revolution led to overpopulation.

      1. Kathryn L Hill profile image80
        Kathryn L Hillposted 9 years agoin reply to this

        The Green Revolution
        "The Green Revolution refers to a series of research and development and technology transfer initiatives, occurring between the 1940s and the late 1960s (with prequels in the work of the agrarian genetist Nazareno Strampelli in the 1920s and 1930s), that increased agricultural production worldwide, particularly in the developing world, beginning most markedly in the late 1960s. The initiatives, led by Norman Borlaug, the "Father of the Green Revolution" who won the Nobel Prize in 1970, credited with saving over a billion people from starvation, involved the development of high-yielding varieties of cereal grains, expansion of irrigation infrastructure, modernization of management techniques, distribution of hybridized seeds, synthetic fertilizers, and pesticides to farmers."

        1. janesix profile image60
          janesixposted 9 years agoin reply to this

          Yes,and look what it's done. It's bloated the population beyond what the world can handle. In less than 20 years, there will be 8 billion people on the planet.

        2. wilderness profile image95
          wildernessposted 9 years agoin reply to this

          Yeah.  It's called GMO's and people are scared to death of them.  It's called lowering the water table, and people are losing their water.  It's called fertilizer and insecticide pollution of our water and people and wildlife are dying of it.

  7. Kathryn L Hill profile image80
    Kathryn L Hillposted 9 years ago

    Dear Janesix,
    You still haven't told us how world wide population control would be implemented.
    I am really quite interested to read your words regarding this topic. You have also failed to mention what problem this solution would be addressing. Thank you in advance for supplying this information.
    We need to know.

    1. janesix profile image60
      janesixposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I already told you, I don't know. My best option would be forced quotas for every country. One child per couple. Like they do in China.

      1. Kathryn L Hill profile image80
        Kathryn L Hillposted 9 years agoin reply to this

        W H Y ! ?

        1. janesix profile image60
          janesixposted 9 years agoin reply to this

          So people don't die by the millions of starvation and disease.

  8. Kathryn L Hill profile image80
    Kathryn L Hillposted 9 years ago

    Yes, thanks to U NO HOOOOO!!!!!!!!!
    Okay I'll stop.

    Thank goodness for wilderness. thats all I have to say!

  9. Kathryn L Hill profile image80
    Kathryn L Hillposted 9 years ago
  10. Kathryn L Hill profile image80
    Kathryn L Hillposted 9 years ago

    I am becoming confused.
    ...we cannot eradicate poverty without taking away the liberty which produces it.
    That's all I was saying.

    Give me liberty or give me death.
    Give me the right to be poor
    the freedom to be poor
    and the right to have as many children as I want
    and reap the consequences of my love making.
    We must take responsibility for our OWN karma.
    We must have free (as in self-guided) will!
    - and boundaries.
    which come with morals, values and good will.

    1. janesix profile image60
      janesixposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Except we ALL reap the consequences of your "love-making".

    2. janesix profile image60
      janesixposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Who's morals and values? Who get's to decide?

      1. Kathryn L Hill profile image80
        Kathryn L Hillposted 9 years agoin reply to this

        GOD

        1. janesix profile image60
          janesixposted 9 years agoin reply to this

          Oh? Like slavery is ok, and genocide? Nice morals.

          1. Kathryn L Hill profile image80
            Kathryn L Hillposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Jesus came with a new way.
            Look it up
            in The New Testament.
            or go to God directly.
            Enough Said.
            Finis.

            1. janesix profile image60
              janesixposted 9 years agoin reply to this

              Yes, leave in a huff when I point out reality to you. LIke usual.

            2. janesix profile image60
              janesixposted 9 years agoin reply to this

              Pick out the parts you like, toss the rest.

  11. Michael-Milec profile image60
    Michael-Milecposted 9 years ago

    There isn't such thing as "bad luck" causing of  poverty, rather consequences of which a list could be  very, very long...

 
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