Dr. Ben Carson: “Poverty Is A State Of Mind”

Dr. Ben Carson, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

The New York Timesreports

that the current Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Dr. Ben Carson who has no background in housing, told Armstrong Williams at SiriusXM Radio that poverty is “a state of mind.”

“I think poverty to a large extent is also a state of mind,” he said, according to a transcript of the interview that was released on Wednesday. “You take somebody that has the right mind-set, you can take everything from them and put them on the street, and I guarantee in a little while they’ll be right back up there.” He added that helping people may not better their lives. “You take somebody with the wrong mind-set, you can give them everything in the world — they’ll work their way right back down to the bottom,” Mr. Carson said.