Very few people on this planet and especially in this country do things independently—e.g. on their own accord and entirely because they singularly want to—without feeling the inexorable pressure of society to do whatever it is that they are doing. Simply, people shame the poor because society tells them that they should. That shaming the poor is “good” for society.

WTF! You say? How could that be in any way good for society?

Consider what a society is firstly. The popular definition is that it is “…an organized group of persons associated together for religious, benevolent, cultural, scientific, political, patriotic, or other purposes.” So one of its main duties, as a society, is to perpetuate itself, to ensure its own survival. Typically, societies that have disappeared have done so because they could sustain themselves and they couldn’t do that because they did not progress toward something. In short, they stagnated and because they couldn’t change, they died off.

Progress is the life blood of any society; the willingness and ability of the society to evolve as circumstances change. An example is that on Easter Island they chopped down the massive forests that covered the island and soon ran out of fuel for fires and building materials. Yeah, they died or went elsewhere.

So what does the need for progress in a society have to do with shaming the poor? Well, the biggest motivator is that we live in a highly commercialized society which means we’re money based and do very little in the way of personal and public validation that does not in some way involve material goods. But material goods have relatively long lifespans so the need to buy something new versus replacing something you already have is not conducive to product sales. Now how do we increase product sales?

Shame the people who can least afford the products in the first place.

Shame them for being too poor to buy the products and constantly question why they’re poor. Compare them to the rest of society who are “worthy” of the products because, duh, they already own them. Make poor people lathe themselves because they are poor and for no other reason. Force them to hate themselves so that they will over extend their credit cards, beg, borrow and steal whatever they can…make them do whatever it takes to buy the products.

Politicians love this kind of society, in fact, it’s the kind of society that has bred the politicians we currently have. Corrupt, partisan, self-dealing, ignorant assholes only in it for the lobbyist job after and the vast power during. Politician absolutely fucking LOVE keeping poor people poor…all the while pretending to care and “do something” for them.

• Food stamps? Let’s keep poor people poor.
• Welfare? Let’s keep poor people poor.
• Subsidized university education to make it horrendously expensive? Let’s keep poor people poor.
• Regulations destroying industry and jobs? Let’s keep poor people poor.
• Crumbling infrastructure, schools and services? Let’s keep poor people poor.
• Social legislation? Let’s keep poor people poor.

There is no one left in government who is honest because if there were, then we’d have vastly fewer people who are “poor”. I’m talking about real programs that actually work as intended to help people rise out of poverty by letting them manage and own their own lives. Real tax reform which puts back into people’s pockets what they rightfully and legally earned. Real entitlement reform which ends corporate subsidies and welfare, stops paying farmers to grow nothing, stops subsidizing private industry.

A real government for real people.

That’s how we stop shaming the poor.