Posted on June 13, 2015 by Nicholas Kristof in The New York Times The New York Times, By Nicholas Kristof Whenever I write about people who are struggling, I hear from readers who say something like: Folks need to stop whining and get a job. It’s all about personal responsibility. In a 2014 poll, Republicans were twice as likely to say that people are poor because of individual failings as to say the reason is lack of opportunity (Democrats thought the opposite). I decided to ask some of the poor what they think. Here in Baltimore, I consulted Andrew Jackson Phillips Jr., 28, who’s been homeless for the last eight years or so, and he thinks that there is something to the personal responsibility narrative.
