Paul A. Cleveland and Brian H. Stephenson

In the following viewpoint, Paul A. Cleveland and Brian H. Stephenson contend that poverty is caused by a refusal on the part of individuals to take responsibility for their own economic well-being. The authors assert that this attitude is encouraged by government social assistance programs that actually increase, rather than alleviate, poverty. Cleveland is an associate professor of finance at Birmingham-Southern College in Birmingham, Alabama. As of 1995, Stephenson was a student there.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. How does government income redistribution fail, according to the authors?
2. In Cleveland and Stephenson's view, what were the circumstances faced by earlier generations of American poor?
3. According to Cleveland and Stephenson, how does Eric personify the superiority of individual responsibility"

Despite being motivated by apparent concern for the poor, government...