To say that anyone, in any situation, can make it out of poverty on a minimum wage income is a bald-faced lie at worst and a self-deluded idiocy at best.
To say that no one, regardless of how they try, can make it out of poverty on a minimum wage income is a bald-faced lie at worst and a self-deluded idiocy at best.
Will it be hard? Yes?
Will it be harder if the person makes choices that increase their expenses, limit their employment opportunities, or restrict their earnings potential? Damn sure it will be.
Will it be easier if the person makes good decisions that reduce their expenses and increase their income? Probably.
Will it be harder, even impossible, if someone gets ill enough, has too much bad luck, or makes too many bad decisions? Almost certainly.
I get really angry at my liberal friends who follow this (so-called) logic chain:
1) Joe was not able to succeed because of Situation X.
2) Therefore, no one can succeed.
3) Therefore, people should just wallow in their victimhood and should never, ever, EVER be taught a single useful thing that they could do for themselves that might improve their situation.
4) Therefore, anyone who proposes useful self-help information must be attacked without mercy.
Somehow they miss the fact that only 2% of all people are going to suffer from Situation X and therefore the other 98% still have a chance. Or that Situation X is not necessarily a 100% failure reason.
I get really angry at my conservative friends who follow this (so-called) logic chain:
1) I had a tough time when I was younger and I made it.
2) Therefore, everyone, in every situation, can make it.
3) Therefore, anyone who doesn't make it has chosen not to.
4) Therefore, we should not provide any assistance to others because they don't really need it if they are determined to succeed.
Needless to say, I don't tend to be popular with anyone on this topic.
The reality is, as we should all know, that the more things one does to improve one's situation, the more likely the situation will improve. And, conversely, the more one clings to a failing plan, the more likely the plan will fail, fully and completely.
I tell people that they have nothing to lose by trying to improve things in a reasonable, rational manner. At worst, they get the novelty of failing in a new way. At best, things get better.
When you're standing nose-deep in a pile of shit, getting to neck deep (a mere 5% improvement) is an awesome quality of life enhancement.