I’m reluctant to properly respond to it since I don’t see how this comment is a response to the points in mine.
I made a poorly written post if that is the case. I hope this might clarify:
The telltale symptom of being poor is not having money. The problem with being poor is not being able to engage properly with the wealth-generating activities of society, and that happens for a variety of reasons.
I dispute this is actually the problem people have with poverty.
I wasn’t talking about the issue non-impoverished people have with poverty, but trying to characterise the sort of situation that makes someone poor. Simply not having much money is the symptom; there are many causes, generally describable as systematic obstacles to acquiring and using capital.
For purposes of this discussion, I don’t especially care why most people don’t like other people being poor. Although making the public feel better about the society they live in shouldn’t be discounted as a positive outcome, this is by no means the primary function of a welfare system.
I made a poorly written post if that is the case. I hope this might clarify:
I dispute this is actually the problem people have with poverty.
Right. That makes more sense.
I wasn’t talking about the issue non-impoverished people have with poverty, but trying to characterise the sort of situation that makes someone poor. Simply not having much money is the symptom; there are many causes, generally describable as systematic obstacles to acquiring and using capital.
For purposes of this discussion, I don’t especially care why most people don’t like other people being poor. Although making the public feel better about the society they live in shouldn’t be discounted as a positive outcome, this is by no means the primary function of a welfare system.