Well, I'm from Holland myself, where social services and benefits are probably more sparse than in Norway. But where they are still a lot more available than in the US. And even in Holland I would myself not say that any significant share of the poor is poor because of how they find ever new new ways to suffer.
For one, there are many who have become unemployed or poor through no fault of their own, and some of them never find the way back up/out either. But also regarding those who have been poor for a large part of their life or even across generations, I think that your characterisation is a simplification of the many and complex traps involved in a culture of poverty.
Because there is such a thing of course. It is simply hard to mobilise the skills, contacts and confidence needed to make your way up and out if you have had inferior education, or have never been encouraged to seek education or see it as particularly important. If there are no role models around you who spur the idea in you that it
is possible to achieve a better life. If you are living in a community where most people feel that it's no use and the world's a hostile place; if you havent imbibed this self-evident sense of self-confidence or even entitlement that people from well-to-do families seem to have that, of course they deserve a good job; if you dont know people who might help you out with the practicalities of seeking a job or get you a minor job or internship to start out with; or people who might lend you a few hundred dollars to bridge the kind of gap you might need to invest in a career (start off with an unpaid internship somewhere promising, for example); let alone a few thousand dollars to help you set up your own small business or pay off an old debt that's keeping you down; if you havent been out and about the way middle-class people have (because there was never any money to), and you therefore miss certain skills that are needed to get jobs - people skills, how to behave in certain environments, and practical skills, not being intimidated by complex situations or unknown environments; if you suffer from psychological problems or health problems (which are both more prevalent among the poor); etc etc.
Most people who are long-term unemployed, or on very low incomes, for a long time or even over generations, face any combination of these obstacles. Of course there are those who are exceptionally strong-minded or talented who do still make their way out, but that doesnt mean that the others werent trying, or even actively (if subconcsiously)
chose their poverty. Just that they didnt succeed in overcoming the
extra hurdles and obstacles that middle-class folk just arent faced with.
Cyracuz wrote: I know from experience that it's possible to live well off what the state provides, so this suffering from those who claim to be poor in my country strikes me as more narcissistic and ego based.
Well, again I dont know what its like in Norway of course, but Ive seen how hard it is to survive on welfare in Holland. It might work to a basic extent if you're a young single guy, and it's only a transitory thing (and you are blessed with the confidence to
know it will be, and perhaps with family that is able to lend you some money in case of any emergency). But being a single mum on welfare, for example, like a friend of mine, severely restricts your opportunities to even reach the means you'd need to get out of that trap. And no, "well off" she aint.
Ive lived on minimum income as well, when I lived with an immigrant girlfriend who didnt have a job yet, and its amazing how quickly the wear and tear of getting by on a shoestring can make you downbeat, reclusive, stressed and/or demoralised - none of which in turn helps you when you do go out to try to make it through job interviews and the like.
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