[VIDEO] Lies & Half-Truths on Escaping Poverty | [Radical Responsibility]

The Brookings Institution says there are “three simple rules” poor people can follow to escape poverty and join the middle-class, a claim echoed by political commentators such as Ben Shapiro. This video looks into this claim and shows the various ways it is false.

This video is 12 minutes long. Further description below video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GOZIsvLYpQ

[youtube]3GOZIsvLYpQ[/youtube]

Submitted by Lucky Black Cat on May 11, 2020

So, what are the three rules the Brookings Institution says people should follow to escape poverty?

1. Graduate high school
2. Get a full-time job
3. Don’t have kids unless you’re married (and at least 21)

According to an article on the Brookings Institution website: “Our research shows that of American adults who followed these three simple rules, only about 2 percent are in poverty and nearly 75 percent have joined the middle class.”

This claim of “three rules to escape poverty” has become a big talking point for people who want to sell you the idea that poverty is easy to overcome, so if you’re poor, it must be your own fault. (Ben Shapiro in particular repeats the “three rules” mantra very often.)

This is why it’s so important to debunk this research: it empowers an agenda to ignore the most powerful causes of poverty and ignore the most effective solutions.

If we get the diagnosis wrong, we will get the cure wrong, too. As this video shows, poverty cannot be solved by the poor making better choices. There are bigger forces causing poverty than the sum of individual choices, such as socioeconomic conditions and capitalism, itself.

The “three simple rules to escape poverty” claim is factually wrong, and this video will explain why.

Sources listed in the video description on YouTube.

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