Poll on Causes of Poverty

Poll: Fewer Americans blame poverty on the poor, By Seth Freed Wessler, June 20, 2014, NBC News: “As millions of Americans continue to struggle in a sluggish economy, a growing portion of the country says that poverty is caused by circumstances beyond individual control, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. The poll shows a significant shift in American opinion on the causes of poverty since the last time the question was asked, nearly 20 years ago. In 1995, in the midst of a raging political debate about welfare and poverty, less than a third of poll respondents said people were in poverty because of issues beyond their control. At that time, a majority said that poverty was caused by ‘people not doing enough.’ Now, nearly half of respondents, 47 percent, attribute poverty to factors other than individual initiative. . .”