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Liam's avatar

I lived in a rural Appalachian community for the first 15 years of my life; my father left my mother before I was born, and my mother worked at Mcdonalds. We had no social connections, and no rolodex. I did very poorly in school, up until about 7th grade, mostly because I never did my homework.

In the summer of that year, I met a physician in my community who, for whatever reason, saw something in me that I don't think I ever saw in myself, and perhaps still don't, and that meeting changed the outcome of my life.

So based on my own experience I do believe that people are generally a product of their environment, but I don't believe government is the solution to this negative externality.

And I'd want to give another example of why I think poor people remain poor: my mother was an avid reader. She knew everything about pharmacuetical products. She loved pharmacy. She had stacks of books on Pharmacy. My mother's dream was to start her own pharmacy, but the regulation wouldn't allow it.

1. The pharmacy needs to be a certain number of meters, which makes rent more expensive, and almost impossible for the average person.

2. If you are not a pharmacist, you have to hire one, because only a certified pharmacist can dispence products.

3. Now the second requirement is understandable, and I think we can all agree on this piece of legislation, but the crazy thing is that my mother could have easily passed any examination at the college level that pertains to that industry. This is a woman who could have taken the test, passed the test, gotten certified, then started her own business. That business would have certainly lifted my family out of poverty.

In the old days, if one wanted to become an attorney all they had to do was pass the bar exam. Now, one has to take on 200K in debt. It took me about ten years to pay that down. And quite frankly, I felt it was uncessary. Everything I learned about the law, I learned from the book.

So anyways, I would want to argue that these are the types of entry barriers that also play a role in keeping poor people poor.

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David Wyman's avatar

Your introduction is a very concise description.

The experiments have been run that people hiring will mentally downgrade black-sounding names, yet also show that these effects are quite shallow, and if something else in common shows up (played soccer, went to Texas A&M) the effect is overwhelmed easily. I have two sons adopted from Romania who came late enough that they both have accents. One was cheerful, charming, and established a network of teammates, coworkers, school club members, youth group friends very quickly. When his employer went bankrupt, an old friend invited him to Nome, assuring him he would find a job easily. He is still there, happy and well-employed. The other did not make friends as easily except eventually some drinking buddies. Though he has always been a crazy hard worker, he had a harder time and still does. He eventually found a niche. Is this fair? Of course not. The younger son is as worthy, and probably as good an employee on balance as the older one. But his diminished network diminished his possible outcomes.

BTW, it's not just IQ that's heritable. The younger's ability to work hard and the older's easy personality are probably heritable as well. But they have to be planted in at least half-decent soil.

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