Quote Originally Posted by Total_Blender
Only about 3% of Americans are on Welfare now. But 15.2% are below the poverty line. Being poor does not equal being a leech on the system, as the majority of poor aren't even recieving Welfare.

Notice in the table in the Wikipedia link I provided the correlation between the poverty index (HPI-2) and the percentage of the population lacking functional literacy skills.

I could go on about the high percentage of people in the penal system over B/S like canabis posession, etc.

If it is true that people who are poor are poor because they choose to be then you must surely have some data or sources to back it up. I appreciate your vitriol and all that but the data will prove you wrong.
you mistook my post i was saying that if you are poor, in jail or you have alot of baby mama's or baby daddy's that is a personal choice you are that way.... i scooped it all in one clump.... i never said if you are poor you are a leeches.... the leeches are the people who stay in jail or have 20 kids and make minimum wage..... i said i speek from personal experience and the oppertunities are out there all you got to do is choose to not break the law, do with out the nicer things in life for a while, work hard, and use birth control you can easibly obtain a good paying job and then you can afford the nicer stuff.... like i said befor it is a choice nobody forces you to be poor... reps for a good post anyway you must have misread my original post