| > If poor people are to become middle class people If this is the goal, you need to be pushing to radically restructure the way society and the economy functions. You cannot have everyone employed at, say, $60K a year in the one we have. Most of the time when people say this, they prefer to focus on individuals rather than systemic issues - "this one person pulled them self up by their own bootstraps - surely others can, too. And "others" can, and do. That leaves people who can't. Now what? > I think it's better if we strive for a minimalistic government The problem is capabilities. Libertarian fantasy-states work in frontiers and sometimes in low-population, high-homogeneity areas. As population increases, many public goods need management[1] and public management means the state necessarily takes on more functions. So you need to work on your plan to massively reduce population or get yourself a new planet if this is your goal. Your desire to drive self-sufficiency by intentionally depriving those in need cannot work in our current world and simply results in performative cruelty. > Half of being poor is in the mind Have you been poor? I have have been very poor. I grew up that way. I know what you're talking about, and I suspect you honestly don't understand how condescending and insulting it is. [1] Growing up in a very rural town in Tennessee, people used to routinely burn their trash. Try that in San Francisco. |