The following comes from an October 6 Inland Catholic Byte article:
SAN BERNARDINO — Catholic Charities San Bernardino-Riverside is hosting a Poverty Simulation at the Diocesan Pastoral Center on Friday, November 18. The Poverty Simulation is designed to help people better understand the challenges, stresses, and compounding factors that contribute to poverty.
During the simulation, participants are assigned a role in a family. The task for each family is to find a way to provide food, locate or maintain shelter, and secure other basic necessities for one month. Every week is represented in 15 minute intervals in which family members must meet basic requirements and interact with the community resources that they need. The Poverty Simulation has been described by past participants as “real,” “stressful,” and “life-changing.”
Participants face a variety of difficult, yet common, challenges. The result is a simulated experience of poverty in which participants gain a clear understanding of the day-to-day challenges of low-income families and learn firsthand about the institutional barriers that prevent struggling families from moving beyond poverty.
Catholic Charities hosts the Poverty Simulation with a cross-section of community stakeholders in an effort to create systemic change in government, education, social services, business, health care, law enforcement, faith community, and non-profit organizations. The experience of navigating the challenges that poor families face impacts people who can influence change in our community.
See the problem?
“Catholic Charities hosts the Poverty Simulation with a cross-section of community stakeholders in an effort to create systemic change in government, education, social services, business, health care, law enforcement, faith community, and non-profit organizations. ”
Why no effort to change the poor’s personal behavior, the primary cause of poverty? Why no emphasis on virtue? Why are all proposed changes structural?
Because Catholic Charities is really Leftist Charities, which is why I don’t support it in any way. It is a big recipient of government grants, so of course it advocates for government solutions rather than ones that will actually work.
Ask your local CC employees whom they are voting for and…
Why not a simulation before poverty becomes a problem:
1) You have a choice to stay in school or drop out.
2) You have a choice to wait until married to have sex and have a child.
3) You have a choice to waste money on something you don’t need or save it.
4) You have a choice to do drugs or not.
5) You have a choice to be punctual or not.
6) You have a choice to be responsible or not.
7) You have a choice to be honest or not.
You have choices. More likely than not, people who end up poor made poor choices somewhere in their past, or their parents made poor choices.
Promote virtue, industriousness, frugalness and character, and that will lead people out of poverty. No big government programs needed.
Good comment. The “choice” is clear. Deacon Vince
Sawyer, What would we we do without you, the voice of reason, crying out in the wilderness? Thanks.
This article made me sad. We were a poor family of 9 children. Never accepted charity. Went to school and took jobs. I babysat in grade school and washed dishes at the hospital during high school. Went to work, 10 hours a day for $30 a week, as a medical secretary. Our whole family all took jobs and worked hard, and we all did fine. The picture of the kid looking longly at food he can not afford is probably on food stamps. Can’t help think of my sister who once stole two eggs for 6 of us. It is not a sin if you are dreadfully hungry. That kid should go to school, learn to speak English if he can not, get a job and work hard so that he can buy some food, instead of waiting for some charity to provide for him. So this is where…
How not to be poor:
https://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/williams051105.asp
The U.S. and poverty:
https://jewishworldreview.com/cols/williamns021214.php3#.V_1HSfWcH8g
I think they spelled “Stimulation” wrong.