Thread by @Noahpinion

Japanese poor people do everything right - they get a job, avoid violence, don't do drugs, and don't have kids out of wedlock - and yet they're still poor.

This suggests that poverty is NOT mainly caused by bad behavior.

bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…

2/In America, conservatives often attribute poverty to laziness, criminality, or irresponsibility.

These stereotypes are applied especially often against black people...

3/But conservatives also sometimes apply this "moral" view of poverty toward poor white people.

Here's Kevin Williamson in the National Review:
nationalreview.com/magazine/2016/…

4/But if violence, drugs, out-of-wedlock births, and unwillingness to work are the main causes of poverty, we'd expect countries where almost nobody does these things to have very low poverty rates...right?

Well, I do happen to know of such a country.

It is Japan.

5/Japan is, by some measures, the least violent country on Earth.

6/In fact it's even less violent than it used to be!

economist.com/asia/2017/05/1…

7/And VERY few Japanese people do drugs.

kotaku.com/why-japan-is-s…

8/How about single parenthood?

The rate is MUCH lower than in the U.S.

9/And how about idleness?

HA. Japanese people work a TON. More Japanese people have jobs than Americans! And they work even longer hours.

10/So Japan should have much less poverty than other rich countries...right??

WRONG!!

nippon.com/en/behind/l103…

11/Japan's poverty rate - measured in internationally standardized terms, as the % of people making less than half of median income - is closer to America's than to Europe's.

12/Japanese poverty is typically hidden. The government, and people themselves, try hard to hide it.

japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/03/0…

13/Many Japanese people fall off the wagon of prosperity and never manage to get back on.

asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Nearly…

14/The country has 3.5 million kids in poverty - a child poverty rate of 14%.

nippon.com/en/japan-data/…

15/Japan's experience suggests that there is something very, very wrong with the conservative theory that poverty is mainly caused by bad behavior.

16/So what really causes poverty?

Poverty is a natural result of a market economy.

To fix poverty, we need to intervene to support the people that fall through the cracks. There's just no other way.

17/We should look to the welfare states of Europe, and to measures to raise the wages of low-end jobs, instead of hectoring poor people to behave better.

(end)

bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…