Poverty Isn't Just About Bad Choices

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.