Its not about luck, its about working hard and developing skills.

That's how you get out of poverty and get opportunities.

I find it funny when people think raising the minimum wage is the answer... What do you think happens when minimum wage goes up? The price of everything goes up too... So they'll make a little more, and spend a little more, but wind up in the same place: broke. I have a friend who manages a local Walgreens store... As soon as it was known that minimum wage was going up, prices went up on many products... One week later, he showed me a list of items, hundreds of them, that were already raised, or will soon be going up... Just by the news of minimum wage going up.... Getting a better job, not raising minimum wage, is the answer to making more money....

Being born poor in the current system is a disadvantage in any part of the country and sadly people look to government for a solution to these problems. Government restrictions on labor in the forms of licenses, minimum wage and other regulatory burdens make it near impossible for those without wealthy parents and government priveleges to work their way up.

What about the hard working that remain poor? By your logic, if everyone worked hard there would be no poverty. Unfortunately, the world don't work like that otherwise workers in the 3rd world countries would be among the richest in the world. They are not because of exploitation and hoarding of wealth. Admittedly, there are lazy people but most working people (actual employed people) aren't 

Ok this is from when I did my taxes just a month ago or so.... The penalty for not having insurance this year, is $250, or 1% of your gross pay, whichever is higher.... Next year, the penalty goes up to around $1,000, the year after, around $2,300... That's as far as they go, for now... This is in California, don't know if it changes at all from state to state. Luckily, I have insurance through my work, for now. Someone asked how the gov is supposed to make money from this... If anyone remembers a politician bragging about how the gov would bring in over $30 billion dollars just from fines, that's how. Soon enough, insurance is going to be so fucking expensive, that even a $5,000 fine is going to look like a deal. Millions of people this year are clearly forgoing insurance and paying the small fine instead... Even if they only get the "low" fine of $250, if 10 million people decide that's the more affordable option, then this year alone, from a very conservative figure of ten million people, gives our lovely government a small sum of: $2,500,000,000.... Yes, only $2.5 billion. $2.5 billion collected from people who are not participating in, but essentially funding obamacare... It's a fucked up, giant money making sceam, made by a corrupt government, under the guise of "it's for the people".... And if any of you think I'm wrong..... Well, come back to this post in a year or two.... Or three.... But, it will ultimately be the downfall of this economy of ours... I'm sorry for the post on the back of your message... It's not directed at you, except for the part of how much the penalty is...

Most people who work hard and ramain poor have probably made bad decisions.

For example, someone with no skills beyond a low paying job shouldn't attempt to start a family as single parent. However, we see it happen time and time again. That's where most poverty starts.

I know someone who has three kids and was working dead end jobs. The father of the children also avoided paying child support. So she went back to school, became a nurse, and now lives a comfortable life. That's how you get out of poverty, get some god damn skills.

But people also have more money in their pockets to spend on goods and services. Why do we always neglect that part of the equation? You can't just assume that inflation is going to zero all of it out, especially since we've been in a *very* low inflation environment (QE is the only thing keeping deflation from happening. The market right now wants deflation to happen. Inflation is a boogeyman in Western societies)

Automation is going to happen anyway. That's just an inevitability, because businesses will always root around to try to figure out how to minimize labor costs, just as they'll root around to figure out how to minimize costs of all their other inputs (even I as an advocate for labor will admit that it's not some conspiracy against the working man, but neither is it a process that is kept at bay only because of low minimum wages). Companies will always be working to figure out what the bare minimum number of employees is to get the job done, and guess what: if they have to pay more, they still can't get rid of people without making the quality of the work suffer, because they've likely already cut back to only what is needed.

Note that the chili's article talked more about improving speed of service through automation, rather than about labor costs. That's why you automate.

Easy enough if higher education wasn't so expensive. Even people come out of college and university but still find it hard to get jobs. Further education is a good way to do better in your career but with the amount it costs, you better work hard to get there. (and if you're poor in the first place, how are you supposed to pay to do more education? Not everyone gets government help) If the economy ever improves, you might get something out there. 

Also, i have a problem with your cause of poverty. What if these people could afford to have kids and further down the line lost their work or lost a partner or something like that? That would be beyond their own control

Most people who work hard and ramain poor have probably made bad decisions.

For example, someone with no skills beyond a low paying job shouldn't attempt to start a family as single parent. However, we see it happen time and time again. That's where most poverty starts.

I know someone who has three kids and was working dead end jobs. The father of the children also avoided paying child support. So she went back to school, became a nurse, and now lives a comfortable life. That's how you get out of poverty, get some god damn skills.