# Do we have less compassion for the poor? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 15, 2015, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-less-compassion-for-the-poor/712707 "2015-02-15T06:33:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-less-compassion-for-the-poor/712707/141 "2015-02-19T15:41:09Z")
> [@AnaMen](#): > > No, we are talking about the number of teenage pregnancies resulting from rape. I have read that it is over 20% in the US. I’m not going to provide a cite for that because I don’t have any faith in anyone’s ability to parse that out accurately from the data collected, due to the complications of defining rape for these purposes. Funny how you insist on cites from me, but decline to provide them for yourself. > [@](#): > > 9,000 is actually 9,000 more than zero, so no, not close at all. Which integer is 9000 closer to - zero, or four million? > [@](#): > > Let me help you with your arithmetic. Didn’t you say you’d graduated from high school? Maybe it has been a while, but percentages have not changed. I’ll make this very simple for you. > > You say out of the 4,000,000 rape pregnancies, 9,000 result in births. 4 million is the total number of pregnancies in the US every year - not the number of rape pregnancies, which is about 32K. That’s why I said > [@](#): > > There are a bit more than 32K pregnancies from rape each year. > [@](#): > > We set it up like so: > > 9,000/4,000,000 = x/100 > > And then we solve for x. We don’t even need a calculator! > > 4,000,000 x = 900,000 > > x = 900,000/4,000,000 > > x = 9/40 So 9/40 % is our answer. > > We’ll go ahead and make that a decimal now, so we can see how it compares to your answer. > > 9/40 = y/100 > > 40 y = 900 > > y = 900/40 = 90/4 = 45/2 = 22.5 > > 22.5/100 = .225 So .225%, not “less than .01 %” as you claim. Well, thanks for the correction, but unless you are claiming that less than a quarter of one percent is a significant number while less than a hundredth is not, it does not make much difference. Less than one quarter of one percent of illegitimate children are the result of rape. > [@](#): > > Yes, the RISK, not the consequence. You buy a lottery ticket HOPING to win, not CHOOSING to lose. A distinction without a difference is no difference. > [@](#): > > No, I am pointing out the flaw in your logic. You say that the fact that YOU have avoided something means that it is easy to avoid. You’ve avoided tornados, I assume. Therefore they too must be easy to avoid, right? Or is the fact that you’ve avoided something actually not proof at all that it is easy to avoid? There isn’t any flaw in my logic. Things that are easy to avoid are easy to avoid. It does not follow that therefore everything is easy to avoid, and the suggestion is silly. > [@](#): > > They are easy for YOU. Putting on a condom is no more difficult for me than it is for anyone else. > [@](#): > > It’s easy to not get pregnant when you are a man. Good job. No, it is easy not to get someone pregnant if you are a man if you use a condom. It is easy not to get pregnant if you are a woman and you use a condom. I am surprised you didn’t know that - didn’t your mommy tell you about the birds and bees? > [@](#): > > It’s easy to bypass McDonalds when you are hungry and go home to eat when you have better food there. What is this strange hold that McDonald’s has over poor people? Is it magic mind rays that compel them to enter and spend money on crappy hamburgers? Pray cite the source of this phenomenon! > [@](#): > > Are people that are more successful than you similarly more deserving? We are talking about a minimal standard - not being poor. By and large, being poor can be avoided with easy, simple steps, available to any adult - condoms, groceries instead of fast food, not getting hooked on drugs or alcohol. Do things like this, and in the long term you tend not to be poor. It is like some tests I have seen - if you just show up and sign your name, you get ten points. Think of “not being poor” as “getting ten points”. The guy who gets 100% may be much, much smarter than me - but he also showed up and signed his name. The chronically poor person is the one saying “I couldn’t show up for the test because I don’t have a car and it’s too far to take the bus and my pen ran out of ink and I didn’t have time to buy a new one because the baby kept me up all night and nobody reminded what time the test was. So be compassionate and give me more money.” Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-less-compassion-for-the-poor/712707/142 "2015-02-19T15:44:32Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > From the numbers I have seen, the pregnancy chance of a single act of intercourse is 3% to 5%. Does this mean there are 640,000 to 1 million forcible rapes every year? That would be a bit high, wouldn’t it? > > According to the [FBI](http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2012/crime-in-the-u.s.-2012/violent-crime/rape) there were 84,376 forcible rapes in 2012. Apply the 5% and you would bet 4K pregnancies. Apply 3% and you would get 2.5K. Not 32K. Where did you get your numbers? From [here](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8765248). Although, to be fair, the data on pregnancy from rape is [not as clear as it might be](http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2013/aug/15/wendy-davis/surveys-show-wide-disagreement-number-rape-related/). Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-less-compassion-for-the-poor/712707/143 "2015-02-19T15:52:03Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > From [here](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8765248). Although, to be fair, the data on pregnancy from rape is [not as clear as it might be](http://www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2013/aug/15/wendy-davis/surveys-show-wide-disagreement-number-rape-related/). Those figures are wildly wrong. I mean seriously, from [Rape-related pregnancy: estimates and descriptive characteristics from a national sample of women - PubMed](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8765248) A 1996 Medical University of South Carolina analysis of the federally-funded 1990-92 National Women’s Study of 3,031 women over 18. (Kilpatrick worked on both the study and the analysis.) The analysis concluded that among rape victims aged 12 to 45, 5 percent of rapes resulted in pregnancies, and, **using the study’s figure of 683,000 “forcible rapes” in 1990** , estimated that “there may be 32,101 rape-related pregnancies annually among American women older than 18 years.” They are overstating the incidence of rape by almost an order of magnitude! ---
**Author:** ![AnaMen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@AnaMen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnaMen)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-less-compassion-for-the-poor/712707/144 "2015-02-19T16:17:03Z")
When you see a “poor person,” you do not and cannot know why that person is poor. Were you to learn of the exact details of that person’s history and background, in some cases, EVEN YOU would have to concede that that individual did not get to that point because of their own poor choices. That teenage girls impregnated by their own fathers had little say in whether that person used a condom, for example. Yes, that’s a small number of people, relatively speaking. But why should we speak relatively when we are talking about actual people? Do they simply not matter until there enough of them to reach enough of a tipping point? If you were that girl, wouldn’t you matter, even if you were the only one? When you add up these small numbers, the people that CLEARLY did not blithely make poor decisions while you rode the bus and walked past the McDonalds and put on your condoms and went to high school, the number is not so small. Then add in the people who made decisions that statistically should have worked in their favor, but failed anyway, because that’s how statistics work. Add in the people who didn’t even have a clue what good decisions would look like, as they grew up surrounded by people making bad decisions and copied them. Add in the people with developmental disabilities and addicted guardians and dads in prison and teenage parents and the ones that were molested at an early age and the ones with religious parents who refused to let them learn about birth control and the number gets bigger and bigger. How can you not see that your EASY may be almost completely out of reach for a nontrivial number of people? When you see someone struggling with something, that means that it is HARD for them. Maybe you don’t see why or how, but why not just accept that it must be? Do you look at a dyslexic kid trying to decipher a book and scoff at him because reading is “easy”? ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-less-compassion-for-the-poor/712707/145 "2015-02-19T16:30:11Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > There is some validity to this. I know white folks who swear up and down that they would NEVER apply for foodstamps, they would starve first, they wouldn’t humiliate themselves like those _[insert ethnic slur here]_. They’ve somehow gotten the notion that foodstamps are for black people (I’ve actually had _several_ white people tell me that if I try to apply for foodstamps I won’t get them because “they only give those to black people”) or some variety of “those people, not us”. Needless to say, if they fall on hard times this could hurt them badly. > > (The truth is that most food stamp recipients are white, because whites are still the majority at any socio-economic level in the US as of this point in time) > snip. There are also lots of adjunct faculty who have multiple degrees, lots of experience, good evaluations and qualifications, etc.–and still end up on food stamps: > **[Professors on food stamps: The shocking true story of academia in 2014](https://www.salon.com/2014/09/21/professors_on_food_stamps_the_shocking_true_story_of_academia_in_2014/)** > > Forget minimum wage, some adjunct professors say they're making 50 cents an hour. Wait till you read these stories ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-less-compassion-for-the-poor/712707/146 "2015-02-19T16:31:28Z")
> [@AnaMen](#): > > Or maybe you barely know anything about her situation or anyone else’s except your own. Are you seriously bitching about someone not leaving their home and moving to SW Ohio on your say-so that there are jobs aplenty? When someone is poor, they cannot relocate on a whim. There is no savings to cover the cost of truck rental, gas, housing deposit, utility deposits, etc. There is no money for a plane flight and car rental to go for interviews in advance and scope out the situation. Leaving your well-known area where you are surviving to go to some random part of the country in the hopes of things improving has put many people in the street. > Even if the person miraculously managed to get a job and somehow get there and get settled in, what about friends and family they have left behind? Is their entire existence just supposed to be about getting some job that pays more, everything else in life be damned? > Go ahead, reveal any problems you have in life and I’d be happy to give you all the answers you need to fix them. I’ll start with the most obvious one, mocking people in bad situations: think of a time when someone did not understand what was going on in your life and dickishly made useless suggestions then told everyone you refused to help yourself so deserved what you got. Don’t be that person. This. (I was going to post something similar, but you did a far better job than I might have.) ---
**Author:** ![AnaMen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@AnaMen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnaMen)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-less-compassion-for-the-poor/712707/147 "2015-02-19T16:51:06Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Funny how you insist on cites from me, but decline to provide them for yourself. I also explained why: I do not believe reliable data is available. Extracting non-consensual rapes from statutory rapes accurately seems highly problematic. Then they often try to include estimates of unreported rapes, which is surely most of them, but their guesses are not data. > [@](#): > > Which integer is 9000 closer to - zero, or four million? And four million is way closer to zero that four trillion… So all integers are practically zero! Seems legit. > [@](#): > > There isn’t any flaw in my logic. Things that are easy to avoid are easy to avoid. It does not follow that therefore everything is easy to avoid, and the suggestion is silly. So, easy things are easy, got it. Round things are round… See, I can logic too! > [@](#): > > Putting on a condom is no more difficult for me than it is for anyone else. No, it’s easier. You probably have some sort of penis, I reckon. And don’t suggest a “female condom” as any kind of viable alternative. Those are barely even for sale due to their extreme lack of popularity. > [@](#): > > I am surprised you didn’t know that - didn’t your mommy tell you about the birds and bees? There was a time when I indeed did not know about the birds/bees, just as there was for you and everyone else. Lucky for us, we probably found out before it made any difference in our own lives. But guess what? Not everyone even HAS a mommy, and some people who DO have mommies DON’T have mommies that tell them! And there are whole organizations of people fighting to stop schools from telling anyone… And they are actually succeeding in some places! I don’t like it either, but it’s true. > [@](#): > > What is this strange hold that McDonald’s has over poor people? Is it magic mind rays that compel them to enter and spend money on crappy hamburgers? Pray cite the source of this phenomenon! It’s not mind rays, silly, it’s highly effective marketing. There are very smart people working full-time to make this happen. They are studying human behavior. They are scientifically developing flavor profiles, they are determining ideal store placement, they are spending billions of dollars on ads… They are outsmarting people that are not very bright and fleecing them for their paltry dollars that add up to big giant stacks of money to fund more of the same. Plus it’s very convenient and you can fill your belly without spending a bunch of time, which is our most valuable resource anyway. Personally, I can’t stomach the crap, but if I could, it would be far cheaper and more convenient than what I eat, though less healthy. Lucky for me I’ve made a string of brilliant decisions and have plenty of time to broil my lobsters and chop my organic veggies. ---
**Author:** ![Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ac8455/32.png) [@Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Your_Great_Darsh_Face)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-less-compassion-for-the-poor/712707/148 "2015-02-19T16:58:46Z")
> [@AnaMen](#): > > When you see a “poor person,” you do not and cannot know why that person is poor. Were you to learn of the exact details of that person’s history and background, in some cases, EVEN YOU would have to concede that that individual did not get to that point because of their own poor choices. That teenage girls impregnated by their own fathers had little say in whether that person used a condom, for example. Yes, that’s a small number of people, relatively speaking. But why should we speak relatively when we are talking about actual people? Do they simply not matter until there enough of them to reach enough of a tipping point? If you were that girl, wouldn’t you matter, even if you were the only one? > When you add up these small numbers, the people that CLEARLY did not blithely make poor decisions while you rode the bus and walked past the McDonalds and put on your condoms and went to high school, the number is not so small. Then add in the people who made decisions that statistically should have worked in their favor, but failed anyway, because that’s how statistics work. Add in the people who didn’t even have a clue what good decisions would look like, as they grew up surrounded by people making bad decisions and copied them. Add in the people with developmental disabilities and addicted guardians and dads in prison and teenage parents and the ones that were molested at an early age and the ones with religious parents who refused to let them learn about birth control and the number gets bigger and bigger. > > How can you not see that your EASY may be almost completely out of reach for a nontrivial number of people? > > When you see someone struggling with something, that means that it is HARD for them. Maybe you don’t see why or how, but why not just accept that it must be? Do you look at a dyslexic kid trying to decipher a book and scoff at him because reading is “easy”? I think my compassion for the poor is still in working order (at least, I think so - it’s not easy for a Demon Prince to be sure), but I don’t have much compassion for bad argumentation. You got roundly spanked on your implication that many illegitimate children must surely be the product of rape, and on being shown the figures - that themselves appear to rely on an inflated rape-pregnancy statistic, which should have given you more of the benefit than you deserve - you start wildly flailing around appealing to emotion in the name of the ugly spectre of _paternal_ rape. Yes, it matters to the one person who is struggling to support the child that was forced on her by her own monstrous father, but you ought to have the intellectual honesty to concede that for every one of these there are orders of magnitude more who were perfectly capable of realizing that pregnancy is a common outcome of sex, that a 98% chance is not the same as a sure thing, and that you would not think it a good idea to cross the street if you had only a 98% chance of making it. Some of your post I’ll leave alone, because surely it’s not necessary that I disagree with _everything_ you say. ---
**Author:** ![Tuxie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ee59a6/32.png) [@Tuxie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuxie)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-less-compassion-for-the-poor/712707/149 "2015-02-19T17:04:42Z")
> [@AnaMen](#): > > Or maybe you barely know anything about her situation or anyone else’s except your own. Are you seriously bitching about someone not leaving their home and moving to SW Ohio on your say-so that there are jobs aplenty? When someone is poor, they cannot relocate on a whim. There is no savings to cover the cost of truck rental, gas, housing deposit, utility deposits, etc. There is no money for a plane flight and car rental to go for interviews in advance and scope out the situation. Leaving your well-known area where you are surviving to go to some random part of the country in the hopes of things improving has put many people in the street. > Even if the person miraculously managed to get a job and somehow get there and get settled in, what about friends and family they have left behind? Is their entire existence just supposed to be about getting some job that pays more, everything else in life be damned? > Go ahead, reveal any problems you have in life and I’d be happy to give you all the answers you need to fix them. I’ll start with the most obvious one, mocking people in bad situations: think of a time when someone did not understand what was going on in your life and dickishly made useless suggestions then told everyone you refused to help yourself so deserved what you got. Don’t be that person. Except I see people immigrate here from other countries with far less job skills, far less language fluency, and far less resources than poor white people. Yeah, everybody’s experiences are unique, but when there are people worse off able to make it happen it does make me wonder how much others are over exaggerating their plight. But this also intersects with race and culture. The perception of what you are willing to do to improve your life will vary by privilege. If you came from more privilege, then some options won’t even be on the table. ---
**Author:** ![Macca26](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@Macca26](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Macca26)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-less-compassion-for-the-poor/712707/150 "2015-02-19T17:09:17Z")
Yes, I am a bit astonished at how strident **Shodan** is about how managing to not be poor is “easy”. Look, people grow up in a lot of different life circumstances. Peer pressure and how you are raised makes huge amounts of difference in those 18 and under and still has a large influence on adults. For example, if you have a circle of friends that decide not to have sex it is far far easier to avoid teenage pregnancy compared to having a circle of friends where they do. [Teenagers listen to parents and peers more than anyone else when it comes to sex, and for the most part parents aren’t stepping up to the plate](http://www.academia.edu/760200/Risk_factors_parental_communication_and_self_and_peers_beliefs_as_predictors_of_condom_use_among_female_adolescents_attending_family_planning_clinics) (in the usa anyway). When it comes down to it, **Shodan** ’s views would probably make 80% of people “stupid”. I made stupid decisions in my life. I’m college educated and make middle-class figures but damn if I can’t tell there was a ton of luck that went into making some of my really iffy decisions end up working out alright. If it hadn’t worked out he’d be pointing at my decisions and saying “how stupid” - but since it has worked out, well, I’m the poster child. That’s all the difference there is between “stupid” and “smart” decisions in this life sometimes. Look, there are tons of well-off people that are financially stupid as much as the next “poor person”. [This study may not cover the united states but it does go to show that a lot of people out there - what you might even call the “average person” - is just not very good with money.](http://www.oecd.org/daf/fin/financial-education/TrustFund2013_OECD_INFE_Fin_Lit_and_Incl_SurveyResults_by_Country_and_Gender.pdf) It’s a fact of life that it is not “easy” for a lot of people to understand even “basic” things like inflation, budgeting, saving, and interest. You need to adjust your idea of what an average person is capable of. This doesn’t even get into things like mental illness or capacity for stress which can wildly affect everything in our day to day lives. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-less-compassion-for-the-poor/712707/151 "2015-02-19T17:20:20Z")
> [@AnaMen](#): > > And don’t suggest a “female condom” as any kind of viable alternative. Those are barely even for sale due to their extreme lack of popularity. Female condoms are available for sale at amazon dot com. They’re also at Walgreens. How is that “barely even for sale”? ---
**Author:** ![Macca26](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@Macca26](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Macca26)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-less-compassion-for-the-poor/712707/152 "2015-02-19T17:29:57Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > Female condoms are available for sale at amazon dot com. They’re also at Walgreens. How is that “barely even for sale”? Let’s put it this way. We’ve got a teenage girl that may not even know female condoms exist, who may not have a debit or credit card in order to buy things online without their parents knowledge, with parents who would explode if she even thought of having sex so she can’t breach the subject to them to even ask, and you want her to sort all this out and manage to buy a female condom at Walgreens (which may not be in her geographical area and may not have it in stock that day), with a boyfriend that’s pressuring her with a “you don’t need that, why can’t we do it now?” and “but condoms make sex awful”, and then use it correctly? We can’t even depend on teenagers to use a regular condom correctly and reliably. Talk about some hurdles. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-less-compassion-for-the-poor/712707/153 "2015-02-19T17:31:48Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > Female condoms are available for sale at amazon dot com. They’re also at Walgreens. How is that “barely even for sale”? Tisk tisk… we’re suppose to come up with excuses, not solutions. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-less-compassion-for-the-poor/712707/154 "2015-02-19T17:33:27Z")
> [@AnaMen](#): > > And four million is way closer to zero that four trillion… > So all integers are practically zero! Seems legit. Only if you pull non sequiturs out of your ass. > [@](#): > > See, I can logic too! Apparently not. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![AnaMen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@AnaMen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnaMen)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-less-compassion-for-the-poor/712707/155 "2015-02-19T17:34:49Z")
> [@Tuxie](#): > > Except I see people immigrate here from other countries with far less job skills, far less language fluency, and far less resources than poor white people. Yeah, everybody’s experiences are unique, but when there are people worse off able to make it happen it does make me wonder how much others are over exaggerating their plight. > > But this also intersects with race and culture. The perception of what you are willing to do to improve your life will vary by privilege. If you came from more privilege, then some options won’t even be on the table. When you are surviving where you are, you still have something to lose. When you aren’t (you’re still _alive_ obviously, but your situation is untenable), there is a certain freedom. Once you’ve been stripped of your possessions, you don’t have to cart them around anymore. Once you’re sleeping under a bridge, any bridge will do. Once you’ve lost all of your friends, you might as well live near any set of strangers. That doesn’t mean you’re doing yourself any favors by jettisoning any of the above, obviously, but if they are gone, you must live by your wits as that’s all you’ve got left. Some people can’t though. You say you “see” immigrants that have surmounted these obstacles, but aren’t they the survivors? Don’t assume they are a random sampling. Picking up and leaving your country is risky and if it goes poorly and they are victims of sex trafficking, etc. it would seem they had made a mistake and some other decision could have worked out well for them. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-less-compassion-for-the-poor/712707/156 "2015-02-19T17:35:00Z")
[QUOTE=Macca26] When it comes down to it, Shodan’s views would probably make 80% of people “stupid”. [/QUOTE] Obviously not, or 80% of people would be poor. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Macca26](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@Macca26](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Macca26)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-less-compassion-for-the-poor/712707/157 "2015-02-19T17:37:29Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > Obviously not, or 80% of people would be poor. > > Regards, > Shodan Only poor people are stupid? I disagree. I think there is a healthy mix of wealthy stupid people and smart poor people. In fact, I think stupid people occupy every economic level and that wealth is not necessarily tied to “smartness”. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-less-compassion-for-the-poor/712707/158 "2015-02-19T17:38:42Z")
> [@Macca26](#): > > Let’s put it this way. We’ve got a teenage girl that may not even know female condoms exist, who may not have a debit or credit card in order to buy things online without their parents knowledge, with parents who would explode if she even thought of having sex so she can’t breach the subject to them to even ask, and you want her to sort all this out and manage to buy a female condom at Walgreens (which may not be in her geographical area and may not have it in stock that day), with a boyfriend that’s pressuring her with a “you don’t need that, why can’t we do it now?” and “but condoms make sex awful”, and then use it correctly? Good heavens, no. She should go ahead and have unprotected sex, and the rest of us should be perfectly happy to support her and her offspring without complaint. That’s compassion. You could look it up! Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![AnaMen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@AnaMen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnaMen)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-less-compassion-for-the-poor/712707/159 "2015-02-19T17:40:38Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > Female condoms are available for sale at amazon dot com. They’re also at Walgreens. How is that “barely even for sale”? I didn’t say they were impossible to get. My point was that obviously practically no one likes or uses them. They are unpopular. People do not find them appealing. Many people have never seen one or even know they exist. They are also less than 80% effective. This all adds up to them not being a great option for most situations. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-less-compassion-for-the-poor/712707/160 "2015-02-19T17:44:46Z")
> [@Macca26](#): > > Only poor people are stupid? I disagree. Good luck learning English! Regards, Shodan [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-less-compassion-for-the-poor/712707.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-have-less-compassion-for-the-poor/712707.md?page=9)