The country’s top official in charge of housing for the country’s poorest residents said this week that poverty is merely a “state of mind.”
Ben Carson, the secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) appointed by President Donald Trump, gave an interview during a town hall that was recorded and will air on SiriusXM radio Wednesday, according to The Washington Post.
Was he asked a question that prompted this response? That context would be good to include.
Carson said the government can help people climb out of poverty, but said that programs "sustaining them in a position of poverty” are not helpful.
The comments came days after Trump revealed his proposed 2018 budget, which showed steep cuts for HUD, which helps provide housing for millions of the nation’s low-income residents, as well as programs like food stamps and Medicaid.
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"I think poverty to a large extent is also a state of mind,” he said. “You take somebody that has the right mindset, you can take everything from them and put them on the street, and I guarantee in a little while they'll be right back up there.”
"And you take somebody with the wrong mindset, you can give them everything in the world, they'll work their way right back down to the bottom," Carson said.
Carson attributed the mindset to negative parenting and exposure to “a poverty of spirit.”
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The comments caused immediate controversy on social media.
Ben Carson thinking that poverty is a mindset is a pretentious dismissal of the struggle that millions of working parents go through.
— Simar (@sahluwal) May 24, 2017
Dear @SecretaryCarson,
— Nita Lowey (@NitaLowey) May 24, 2017
States of mind:
✔️ Happy
✔️ Sad
✔️ New York
NOT a state of mind:
❌ Systemic poverty https://t.co/HAuQrNzvTL
Ben Carson said poverty is a state of mind.
— Zerlina Maxwell (@ZerlinaMaxwell) May 24, 2017
Next month, I'm going to tell my landlord that I paid my rent with positive thinking!
Carson grew up in poverty in Detroit and became a neurosurgeon, leading him to become a motivational speaker and author who eventually ran for president during the 2016 Republican primary.
"I think the majority of people don’t have that defeatist attitude, but they sometimes just don’t see the way, and that’s where government can come in and be very helpful," he said. "It can provide the ladder of opportunity, it can provide the mechanism that will demonstrate to them what can be done."
Trump’s proposed $6 billion cut to HUD would end grants for new homebuyers and community programs that help impoverished areas as well as cutting funding for public housing projects.