[Magdalen] Lottery tickets

[Jim Guthrie]

One aspect of this stems from the immigrant mindset . . .

Hotel and Motel help varies from venue to venue. Smaller mom-chains are 
often family affairs, whether East Indian or African American or Asian 
or Hispanic.

Like many bodegas and other small businesses (especially run by 
immigrants), families work cheap and communal sharing of expenses and 
the like often allows wealth accumulation. A family -- 2-3 generations 
can run the shop and have no problems taking "sleep shifts" in a small 
apartment that might have 8-10 residents. Thus, bringing in outsiders 
becomes a huge financial burden,while a decent small apartment may often 
be better, cleaner and more healthful than housing wherever they came from.

Of course, Americans often can;t grasp what happens when poor rural folk 
get attracted to cities, living in apparent squalor, but the attraction 
is two-fold: It's easier to eke out a living in the densely packed 
appalling-looking places that elicit so much sympathy (but little 
realistic help) from the developed world, but the more important one is 
people pool information, resources and ideas -- and scrape together 
enough for one or more family members to emigrate, and to better 
themselves might start a small business or start working in one with 
emigrants who've gone before.

And as the earlier operators move up the ladder -- say from a bodega to 
a motel, the next wave takes over the old store.

This entrepreneurial spirit with single-minded goals of acquiring wealth 
(which then helps bring others over friends and relatives from the slums 
of, say, Kalkota) is far different than the American native-born idea of 
get a job and a paycheck and simply struggle along, say with one or two 
people eking out a living on minimum wage, living in American squalor 
with a small family and no comprehension of what it takes to improve 
their situation.

In a sense, some American Conservatives have this right, i think, though 
they are complete failures at coming up with approaches to solve this 
dilemma. Liberals do better at figuring out short term alleviation of 
despair through housing, feeding and other programs, but there's almost 
nothing there aimed at providing a long-term solution to poverty.

Cheers,
Jim