ACC25026
It's easier to blame the victim than to think about the way the economy is deliberately structured to keep some people poor. The Federal Reserve quite openly says it deliberately plans to keep the unemployment rate at 5 percent. That keeps wages down all across the board. Tell me how that 5 percent (plus the additional 25-30 percent who live in poverty) could possibly 'choose' to be poor, then?
Outside of monks who've taken a vow of poverty, I doubt anyone has ever 'chosen' to be poor or homeless. Most poor people do work, and they work damned hard, far harder than people with money. Many hold down two or even three jobs. In my home town, it's quite common to have both parents working at minimum-wage jobs, and still have a poor household. Even many homeless people work at jobs that no one else wants, at car washes, as day laborers, etc. Many homeless have mental health problems, or drug or alcohol addictions. Many of the poor, homeless or not, are so trapped in a cycle of despair that they can't see any way out. That includes some of our own Indian people on the reservations, possibly your own relatives.
Who you choose to give your money to is your own choice, certainly. But please, don't be so mean-spirited as to justify your scrooge attitude by attacking people who have, for the most part, done nothing to deserve the state of poverty they are living in. A roll of the dice, and you could easily wind up where they are. We all could.