This is an inspiring autobiography of a Russian-Jewish son of an immigrant who grew up in the ghettos, served as a bombadier in WWII, became an influential activist in the civil rights and Vietnam War era, became a world renowned professor and changed the face of American history with his first book A People's History of the United States.
From Howard Zinn's
You Can't Remain Neutral on a Moving Train p.165:
"[talking about growing up in the Brooklyn ghettos and his father's constant struggle to earn a living]
All his life he worked hard for very little. I've always resented the smug statements of politicians, media commentators, corporate executives who talk of how, in America, if you worked hard you would become rich. The meaning of that was if you were poor it was because you hadn't worked hard enough. I knew this was a lie, about my father and millions of others, men and women who worked harder than anyone, harder than financiers and politicians, harder than anybody if you accept that when you work at an unpleasant job that makes it very hard work indeed."
Sadly, though my parents worked hard, succeeded and I was fortunate enough to grow up in the middle class--I agree with Zinn. I understand that there will always be people who abuse the system. But just like the poor and disadvantaged, there are wealthy and influential corporate fat cats who cheat the system on a daily basis. Yet those who "despise" the poor never seem to treat the rich the same way. When I say "despise," I mean exactly as Zinn says. It seems as though the poor are blamed for making that "choice" in life. It seems as though the poor in our society are somehow not really that poor. It seems as though the poor are blamed for the very situation they are in and struggling to get out of. And it's the poor and their advocates that take money out of my paycheck!
Why these beliefs? Simply because people don't want to pay taxes. They don't like someone telling them how to use their "hard-earned" money; they want more for their own use. Somehow giving a little to uplift all of society is evil because its liberal, Democratic, progressive, or socialist. To me, it reeks of greed. Guess what Americans: if you don't like it, get politically involved and lets push for a more direct democracy. Until this happens, I somehow doubt that without force, every beggar on the street would receive $5 from you every time you pass by.
When I asked an admitted "conservative," Why should a CEO earn a billion dollars a year and his janitor $5 an hour, he replied: because he can. To look at the true richness of a society all you need to do is look at how the poorest person lives. I don't mean to pidgeonhole all conservatives, right-wingers or Republicans because indeed there are some in those groups who would agree. Of course they then would be labeled by their fellow ideologues as "not really conservative."
This idea that the poor drain our tax dollars is absolutely untrue. Somehow, spending tax dollars on education, healthcare, and poverty is a waste--yet, outspending all other nations combined on defense contractors is a-ok.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Militar..._United_States as is spending more than any other domestice budget item
http://www.cdi.org/issues/discret.html. Meanwhile, China spends a tenth of our budget on electronic countermeasures to our high-tech, high dollar offensive weapons.
Abandoning the poor in our society because we believe it is their "choice" is equivalent to abandoning a family member in need. Bottomline: most of us would never do it. Now if you had to continually bail that family member out, understandably you would have to draw the line. The same is true for any social welfare program. But the mentality that the majority of the poor truly need the help must be there first. Everyone makes mistakes in life. Just because you have been fairly fortunate, predicted the right paths, and picked the right choices doesn't mean misfortune can befall you at any moment. To deny those who have fallen short in life is not Christian nor is it American.
Originally Posted by dmp
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I guess I should know that I have to on this board else my posts will be picked apart word by word in a semantics free for all. 
