Konkvistador comments on Politics Discussion Thread September 2012 - Less Wrong

-1 Post author: Multiheaded 05 September 2012 11:27AM

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Comment author: [deleted] 06 September 2012 12:46:09PM *  4 points [-]

I'm reluctant to properly respond to it since I don't see how this comment is a response to the points in mine.

I made a poorly written post if that is the case. I hope this might clarify:

The telltale symptom of being poor is not having money. The problem with being poor is not being able to engage properly with the wealth-generating activities of society, and that happens for a variety of reasons.

I dispute this is actually the problem people have with poverty.

Comment author: sixes_and_sevens 06 September 2012 01:03:18PM 2 points [-]

Right. That makes more sense.

I wasn't talking about the issue non-impoverished people have with poverty, but trying to characterise the sort of situation that makes someone poor. Simply not having much money is the symptom; there are many causes, generally describable as systematic obstacles to acquiring and using capital.

For purposes of this discussion, I don't especially care why most people don't like other people being poor. Although making the public feel better about the society they live in shouldn't be discounted as a positive outcome, this is by no means the primary function of a welfare system.