Good news, y'all! Forget all about the systemic oppression built into the very fabric of a country that built its wealth on free slave labor.  Ignore the pesky legacy of mortgage loan discrimination and red-lining that prevented black and Latino populations from building property wealth for generations. The prison industrial complex? No worries. Legally sanctioned subpar access to education, healthcare and employment opportunities for black communities? Forget about it!

Why? Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson has the solution for poverty: just change your mindset.

In an interview with SiriusXM Radio released on Wednesday, Carson put forth this hypothetical scenario, “I think poverty to a large extent is also a state of mind…You take somebody that has the right mindset, 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. And you take somebody with the wrong mindset, you could give them everything in the world, they'll work their way right back down to the bottom."

Kendall, please give this man a Pepsi! Clearly we’ve been over complicating this issue.

 

Photo: Giphy

                   

The retired neurosurgeon-turned-Trump cabinet member went on to argue that parents can help prevent their kids from developing the wrong mindset" "A lot of it has to do with what we teach children," he said. "You have to instill into that child the mindset of a winner." Carson, who has a history of sticking to standard conservative talking points, didn’t stop there. He went on to say, "there's also a poverty of spirit. You develop a certain mindset."

 New York Congresswoman Nita Lowey kindly provided Carson with a vocabulary lesson.

Others hatched a plan to apply his brilliant advice.

In keeping with Carson’s example, some submitted a hypothetical scenario of their own

 

But are we really surprised though?

 

Alright Ben, that’s enough out of you.

Photo: Giphy