Ten Ways to Avoid Poverty

10 Ways to Avoid Being Poor

The economic development profession ought to be concerned about the reduction of poverty in our communities.  Perhaps another column can articulate the dozens of reasons why this is so.  Unfortunately we have let the cave people stereotype us as establishment types, uncaring country clubbers (I don’t play golf), and elitists.  In fact, if we are true to our profession, we are change agents.  So, in that vein, I will use this space to present what I hope are common sense, increasingly nontraditional solutions as to how we can reduce poverty in our communities.  In so doing, I understand I may, again, arouse the ire of the establishment, but my message is not directed to them.  My message is to young people who still have a chance to make things better.  So please give some thought to the following:

1.               Graduate from high school.  It is free.  The taxpayers foot your bill.  Never look a gift horse in the mouth.  Even a high school diploma is no guarantee that you will be comfortable.  Lack of a diploma is a guarantee you will always be poor.

2.               Get a job.  Any job.  Do not expect to start out as the CEO of General Electric or as the Captain of a 747.  Do not listen to all the defeatist rhetoric about how you need a crutch or special assistance.  Do not listen to the “chump change” or “hamburger flipper” culture.  Those people generally wind up incarcerated or dead.  In fact, there will be hundreds of thousands of jobs available in the next few years as the Baby Boomers retire. Only 20% of the current workforce will have the shills to deal with the emerging job market.  Get some.

3.               Work more than forty hours a week.  Success and the attendant comforts do not come without a price.  As my colleague, Birgit Klohs has said many times, “If you want to be successful in our work, you must be willing to work up to eighty hours a week.”  While this may seem extreme, it is also true.

4.               Do not depend on government to help you out of poverty.  In fact, some governmental employees have a vested interest in you remaining poor.

5.               Do not listen to the brie nibbling, chardonnay sipping set.  Their motivations have far more to do with themselves than you.  If you think they have something useful to say to you, the next time you need a haircut, go spend $200 on it.  Sean Penn could have boarded his private jet and flown out of New Orleans before Katrina struck.  Most of the residents of New Orleans did not have private jets, nor do they have estates in rural France.  For the record, I am a beer drinker.

6.               Do not have unprotected sex.  Despite youth’s propensity to feel immortal, you are playing Russian Roulette with your life.

7.               Do not have children out of wedlock.  If you want to be poor and miserable, that is your choice.  But statistics show that children born out of wedlock are overwhelmingly condemned to lives of poverty.  Give the innocents a chance.

8.               If you want to have children, here are a couple of suggestions.  Get married.  Read number one again.

9.               Avoid breaking the law.  With search engines and the proliferation of information outlets, any mistake you make will follow you around the rest of your life.

10.            Avoid drugs.  Drug testing will become increasingly accurate, long-term, and frequent.  Read number nine again.

You do not have to be rich to observe these simple rules.  For the most part, it is free.  You give yourself better odds to succeed.  It will not cost you.  Best of all it will not cost me.