Poverty and Voting
I was talking to a girl recently, yes that does happen from time to time, and she said that based on my economic origins (having grown up semi-poor) she would have expected my political allegiances to have been with either the NDP or the Liberals. At first glance, her logic made sense, those who are most likely to take advantage of social services would naturally be more likely to support those politicians who are least likely to destroy the structure that administers those services. I justified to her my political allegiances, economic standing aside, with what I felt was a intellectual enough defense. But still I hadn't refuted her logic, which I knew to be fundamentally flawed, but I couldn't figure out why. Today, it hit me. Poor people don't want better social programs, they don't want to be helped like that, they just don't want to be poor anymore. Also, poor people are also the first ones to be disenchanted by political promises, tax hikes hurt them the most, and tax cuts benefit them the least. The first promises broken are the ones that were made to poor people. Poor people have no say, because money equals influence. People have accused me in the past of betraying my allegiances to the impoverished and disenfranchised because of my right wing political views, and this is not new to me. The truth is that you can never spend enough money helping the poor, healing the sick, etc. However, the best way to help the poor, and what they actually want of politicians, is to creative an environment in which they can end their poverty under their own terms.

   [ posted by William @ 4:03 PM ]