people are basically born lazy. ryan has said he misspoke and he pivoted to rural poverty, which turns out to be worse than urban poverty, especially in the south. but even the broader point that government intervention exacerbates poverty by feeding the pathologies of people who by nature or conditioning lack the superior intellect and drive that makes rich people successful, even when their wealth is inherited, is problematic. you can t argue that the answer to poverty is work, but refuse to address the lack of good-paying jobs, ongoing racial and gender discrimination in hiring, and deficits in education. all of which feed joblessness and hopelessness. to paraphrase ian rand, culture didn t cause poverty, it inherited it. and that wraps up things for the reid report. i ll see you back here tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. eastern and be sure to visit us online. the cycle is up next. what you got going on today? hey, joy. we ve got a busy show.
in february of 1960, philosopher ian rand delivered a yale lecture saying if you want to prove to yourself the power of ideas and particularly of morality, the intellectual history of the 19th century would be good to study. when we had civil war and privately run aid societies and tax funded poor houses were how america dealt with the destitute. that was the ideal period in american history, according to ian rand, who added, never mind the low wages and harsh living conditions of the early years of capitalism. capitalism did not create poverty, it inherited it. it s true that the 19th century capitalism did not create poverty, but it didn t end it either. instead it was the mid 20th century, the period economists
called the great compression, from the new deal through the late 1970s which saw the biggest expansion of the middle class. when unions set a floor under wages and government set a floor under want. instituting things like child labor laws, the 40-hour workweek and the minimum wage. when the notion that if you pay workers more, they can afford to buy more. and that means businesses make more and hire more. that did more to end poverty than anything ian rand thought up. repealing that government backed floor. repealing the 20th century, flawed, because african-americans remained deliberately locked out, has become the project of ian rand disciples on the right. their argument is that what really creates poverty is culture. when ryan spoke about a cultural tail spin of inner city men who are not even thinking about learning the value of work, he cited charles murray. the social scientist who believes african-americans are genetically inferior intellectually and that poor