Wednesday, October 22, 2014

TPPF Poverty/Prosperity Summit: Poverty and it's Causes (Panel 1)


"Open your mouth, judge righteously,
And plead the cause of the poor and needy."
Proverbs 31:9

Stephen F. Austin Hotel -- TPPF is hosting a summit on Prosperity and Poverty; the first panel is on poverty and its causes:

Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream


Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream

Highlights:
  • Richard Alm; SMU:
    • The rich have capital, the poor don't.
    • Freedom Capital Stock -- Free Enterprise over Time
  • Sandy Schultz; Work/Faith Connections:
    • Poverty is poverty of relationships.
    • Spiritual poverty is the root cause.
    • Under the surface is a feeling of inferiority, shame, and voicelessness.
    • Start out by helping them return to work.
      • We give people incentives to spend long periods of time out of work, which ultimately makes employers suspicious.
    • Coaxing people into becoming productive citizens is a multi-year process.
  •  Alan Graham; Mobile Loaves:
    • #1 Cause of poverty is a "profound loss of family"
    • Smell of poverty = bouquet of Christ.
    • Policy without relationships = More poverty.
    • Modest Living Income - You can get people off the streets where they're earning sufficient income to covert the basics for $500/month.
    • It's legal to panhandle, but you can't sell drinks on street corners to earn income.
      • "Our guys already know how to fish, how do we get them a license to fish?!?"
  •  Bob Woodson:
    • The principles that apply in our market economy should apply in our social economy.
    • 4 types of poor folks.
      • Broke and down on luck
      • Disincentives
      • Genuine mental and physical disabilities.
      • Bad decisions
    •  The issue isn't private vs. public; it's competent vs. incompetent.
    • Don't 'design' remedies for people you don't know, build on what already exists in a community.
    • Make the poor agents of their own transformation instead of delivering them from themselves.
    • In our social economy, we honor credentials, in our market economy, we reward results.

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