Everything You Need To Know About Avoiding Poverty In 250 Words

Walter is a brilliant man with a knack for breaking complex economic issues down into easily understandable, bite sized sentences. This is no small feat because economics, despite what some people may tell you, is generally not intuitive or easy to grasp without a great deal of study.

In his column today, Walter Williams dropped this nugget of wisdom:

Poverty in Egypt, or anywhere else, is not very difficult to explain. There are three basic causes: People are poor because they cannot produce anything highly valued by others. They can produce things highly valued by others but are hampered or prevented from doing so. Or, they volunteer to be poor.

That reminded me of another little snippet of genius that Williams once penned,

Avoiding long-term poverty is not rocket science. First, graduate from high school. Second, get married before you have children, and stay married. Third, work at any kind of job, even one that starts out paying the minimum wage. And, finally, avoid engaging in criminal behavior.

I would add one thing to that: Don’t spend yourself into oblivion. So, take Walter Williams’ advice to heart, follow it over time, and at least you won’t live a lifetime of poverty. Anybody can be poor in America, in fact many of us have been, but nobody has to stay poor in America.

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