So, Steve Jobs was a criminal? Obama? Bono?

I ask because such icons usually short circuit the synapses of zealots who have been indoctrinated into believing that making money, being well paid or, in general, busineses, corporations are evil. All are evil until you bring up Apple. CEO's are money grubbing bastards, until you bring up Steve Jobs. Bleeding heart liberal artists are cool and "one of us" while reality is that they earn tens of millions of dollars per year doing relatively little. My favorite new example being Bono who, while pulling at everyone's heart strings is, behind the curtains, evading taxes in Ireland through some machination involving passing money through The Netherlands. Yet, he isn't evil. Other's are evil, but these examples never are.

Given that the average profile of HN posters is on the young side it is easy to see that there's a fair degree of indoctrination at play here. This comment is likely to be mercilessly down-voted, as is anything that points out that the emperor has no clothes.

I don't know what it takes for someone to see past their indoctrinated beliefs. I do not necessarily want to have you see things my way but rather see that you think things through and don't opine as you are told but rather after carefully studying and understanding the facts. Yes, that's hard work, particularly when your Pavlovian reflex is to do exactly the opposite. You say "Burn the witch!" while not making an effort to determine if she is, in fact, a witch.

One can't escape using Obamacare as an example of this. Unions, through the same Pavlovian reflex, militantly supported this abomination. Lots of people tirelessly pointed out that it was a mess. Nobody listened. Now we have a remarcable scenario where Jimmy Hoffa, Teamsters president says something like this in a letter published in The Wall Street journal[0]:

"Time is running out: Congress wrote this law; we voted for you. We have a problem; you need to fix it. The unintended consequences of the ACA are severe. Perverse incentives are already creating nightmare scenarios:"

This is the consequence of indoctrination of the masses. Of cargo cult thinking. Of sheep, not independent humans. Call it what you wish.

Wake up and snap out of this bullshit thinking. In the US the poor are poor because most of them don't want to make an effort, not because they are being oppressed. I know a number of them. They just don't care. In the meantime poor immigrants come to the US without command of the language, work their asses off and succeed. I personally know a guy who slept in his car for nearly six months while launching a delivery service. Now, years later, he owns several homes and employs dozens of people. Yet assholes like those who might write articles like the OL might call him a greedy bastard, even a criminal.

I also know entrepreneurs who have literally died (dead as a nail) from the effort and stress of navigating a business through rough waters.

There are also poor that are so through circumstances outside their control. These people should receive our help and compassion. Can we lift absolutely everyone out of poverty? Nope. Won't happen. A friend of mine lost his brother to alcoholism. They tried every form of intervention they could think of. Every welfare check he'd go get drunk. One day they found him dead behind a 7-eleven due to exessive alcohol consumption. You can't save them all. And. Yes, welfare has created generations of perennially poor families without the drive or interest to elevate themselves in any imaginable way.

Th subject of poverty is complex. Don't believe everything you are told, regardless of the source --myself included. Listen to all points of view. Get some life experience. Then decide.

[0] http://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intelligence/2013/07/12/union...