Taking it personally? I was poor growing up, but my mother was not stupid! She did make some stupid decisions, one of which I am very glad of (she did not abort me).

But perhaps before deciding that there is only black and white, you should look for the exceptions and understand that any generalized statement may be true in general (redundant I know), but that exceptions are the reason we are all not 5'10" 170 pound brown skinned robots.

I think that you are ignorant most likely never had to face any real troubles in life.
"all you have to do is work hard in life and everything will be fine." what a joke. Sometimes no matter how hard people work despite there best efforts something out of there control happens. We are a commercial driven society most people want to live the dream have nice vehicle, buy a house and everything else. some people get laid off but are still stuck with an expensive mortgage and get stuck in a hole. were not all not fucking Christians sometimes condoms break, supporting a child when your not prepared can be tough. I knew a girl who was a single mom age 21 with a 5yo kid looks bad, I shook my head at first and thought stupid girl, but if you look deeper you would see that her mom was a poor alcoholic who kicked her out of her house when she was 14yo! tell me what you do, where would you go at only 14! what goods working hard going to do at 14?
first thing she did is basic instinct find shelter, with some abusive guy who knocked her up and left her with a kid. a friend of mine who i when't to school with was the smartest guy I knew, no joke I used to copy his work alot lol he even got a paid schooler ship to university! I not sure why but for some reason he decided to try heroin, last i heard from him his life was a mess. so what does being smart have to do with it he was a smart hard worker and now is poor as hell. On the flip side some of the stupidest laziest people I know are rich cause they had a walk through guide of their life provided by their rich parents showing them the secrets to success then holding their hand every step of the way to ensure they get a nice cushy little job
my mom was a single parent who worked her ass off to provide an ok border line poor life, also who would later become my step father declared bankruptcy after losing $200,000 he invested in his company that crushed he couldn't even get a job as being a bank manger anywhere after that because they didn't want to hire someone who's credit had been messed up. so you'd better watch your mouth before you go calling my mom or step dad stupid.

For the record, any time in my life that I have been poor, is because I've made some foolish decision, been messed up on drugs and/or alcohol, been incarcerated, or some other non-smart(stupid) maneuver.

It's not very often that I am poor, not even now, though I'm moving in that direction rapidly. I can't stand being poor, it's just lame, and I'm not really a lamer. If I tend to linger at the bottom of the food chain, it's because I'm feeling sorry for myself, or trying to blame somebody for my predicament. It happens, you'd be well advised to realize this, or you're never going to move upward. Notice the correlation between the words "motivate" and "move".

Also FTR, the lowest IQ test I have taken is 129, and the highest was 142, for whatever thats worth. These tests were taken long before I started frying my brain with various substances. But it still doesn't detract from the fact that: "smart people sometimes do some very stupid things".

I hold a fair amount of skills, and if I linger with the poor, I really have nobody to blame but myself. You many have read were I got screwed over by my last boss. This happens. When I started this particular job, I was earning $43.10 as an industrial/commercial painter. That helped me a lot to pay off many of the stupid decisions I've made over the years. And BTW, I was actually screwed over, and well, we will see just how profitable that can be as well. I'll let you know how the lawsuit turns out.

But for now, I need to motivate again, or I will surely languish in poverty; and that would be yet another stupid decision on my part.

Well I just tend to read into things a bit deeper, if that appears to be feelings rather then fact, well a lot of world events are feeling based, facts are important but sometimes the facts change. Especially in recent history.

Regarding the povery and stupid people, I was just trying to push your buttons a bit to see what I can get away with.

Sorry bout that. But you got me I am not as exprienced as most in lots of things. I admit that.

"I have had ample opportunity to observe poor adults. But beyond that, I also have real world facts to go by too that corraborate what I saw first hand." I won't doubt you there.

I truely think all kidding and prodding aside now, and as supported by your stats, that most poverty isn't just one simple characteristic, "in general" the smarter you are the better chance you have of acquiring skills but also in making betterlong term decisions, as well as more cohesive plans for the future.

Additionally, like you've stated, how people end up on drugs, fathering or mothering kids they can't provide for adaquately, all of that is poor decision making, which in part of intelligence, but I think it's economic choices, and personal lifestyle choices that play the largest role in whether you're improverished or not. Intelligence is a role player too but not the only factor. I think we agree that there simply is more then one single cause of poverty.

You can also be intelligent but make poor decisions, or stupid, but make lucky and good decisions. Whether or not you are likely to be in an economic position to make those decisions is a factor of intelligence but not the only one.

As for who makes those decisions, let me be clear, nobody is responsible for the decisions you make except yourself. You have to live with the consequences good or bad, that's understood by me at least lol, naive and young as I may be.

It's been fun discussing but I've gotta dissappear for a bit. Have a great afternoon.

"naive young person" You got it So what do you think of the correlation of illegitimate children to poverty? Pretty close aye?

Well it gets back to what you said earlier:

What makes someone poor is that they lack the skills necessary to function in society. I think that part you nailed.

The problem is that THAT isn't a root cause. That is a symptom of the root cause which is a lack of intelligence.

People who lack intelligence tend to not be able to consider the consequences of their actions, to look ahead and see what they should do. 

That is how you end up with people who are on drugs or are having children they can't afford. They aren't considering the consequences of their actions.