TW, Brad is a good guy.  Trust me, he has helped out many people, but those people where ones who deserved it and worked for it.  Which is different than what that article shows.  I think that he is pointing out a trait that you can see all over the place, and one that is very apparent in the people who remain in poverty.  (That is not the type of person who fell on bad luck, it's the type of person who basically doesn't try).

In business, we have run into the same type of people on a different level.  They want things to happen, but they aren't willing to work to make them happen.  We had a software associate who wanted a part of something that we were doing.  We told him that we would help, but he needed to promote his own stuff, get it up on the shareware sites, etc.  He obviously didn't want to work for it, he didn't bother to do anything that we asked, so we didn't help.  Why should we bust our butts to help somebody who isn't willing to do the same?

In society, why should people help people that aren't willing to help themselves?  People have bad luck, but that is temporary.  Long term poverty is not "bad luck".  It ends up being a life choice.

I think that a lot of that comes from life experience.  I tend to lean more towards Draginol's way of thinking ("id just have phrased it a little more gently). I've lived in a lot of places, mixed with a myriad of different people, and I agree basically with what he says. Most of the perpetually needy I've seen are there because they had some kind of mental illness, an addiction, or because they kept making poor choices time and again. I don't mind helping people out, but they have to be willing to help themselves out or we'll just be back at square one. 

Good article and good link.....