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.