Bryan Caplan undermining the poor’s presumptive status as victims again:
When I blame people for their problems, Democrats and liberals are prone to object at a fundamental level. One fundamental objection rests on determinism: Since everyone is determined to act precisely as he does, it is always false to say, ‘There were reasonable steps he could have taken to avoid his problem…’
Strangely, though, every Democrat and liberal I know routinely blames one category of people for their vicious choices: Republicans. Watch their Facebook feeds. You'll see story after story about how Republicans - leaders and followers - shirk their basic moral duties.
I’m a low-skilled worker, and my observation is that Bryan Caplan is right on. Me and my fellow low skilled workers are less intelligent, less conscientious, and less conformist than the typical American, and these traits are heavy influences on how much money we make. The reason we don’t pick ourselves up by our bootstraps and work ourselves into middle-class workers is because most of us just don’t feel like making those choices.
And then we blame “the system” for the costs.
