--- title: Ben Carson: Poverty Is a 'State of Mind' description: Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson called poverty a "state of mind" that children learn from their parents at a young age canonical: https://time.com/4793372/ben-carson-poverty-state-of-mind/ author: Aric Jenkins article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-24T21:54:32.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T05:06:28.776Z article:section: Politics og:title: Ben Carson: Poverty Is a 'State of Mind' Children Learn From Their Parents og:description: The Housing and Urban Development Secretary is not a fan of government assistance og:url: https://time.com/4793372/ben-carson-poverty-state-of-mind/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt53790140ba8668ea/6988b549cd1bbabd99703926/ben-carson-hud-hearing.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4200 og:image:height: 2363 og:image:alt: ben carson HUD hearing og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ben Carson: Poverty Is a 'State of Mind' Children Learn From Their Parents twitter:description: The Housing and Urban Development Secretary is not a fan of government assistance twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt53790140ba8668ea/6988b549cd1bbabd99703926/ben-carson-hud-hearing.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ben Carson: Poverty Is a 'State of Mind' Children Learn From Their Parents > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Aric Jenkins](https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/) ## Aric Jenkins May 24, 2017 9:54 PM UTC  Ben Carson, secretary of U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) nominee for President-elect Donald Trump, arrives in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York, U.S., on Monday, Dec. 12, 2016. Ben Carson, secretary of U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) nominee for President-elect Donald Trump, arrives in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York, U.S., on Monday, Dec. 12, 2016. Albin Lohr-Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images by [Aric Jenkins](https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/) ## Aric Jenkins May 24, 2017 9:54 PM UTC Housing and Urban Development Secretary [Ben Carson](http://time.com/4692812/ben-carson-slaves-immigrants/) called poverty a “state of mind” that children learn from their parents at a young age during a recent interview. “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,” Carson said during an interview on SiriusXM Radio that will air Wednesday night, [according to the Washington _Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/05/24/ben-carson-calls-poverty-a-state-of-mind-during-interview/?utm%5Fterm=.2a7096095b81). “And you take somebody with the wrong mindset, you can give them everything in the world, they’ll work their way right back down to the bottom,” Carson added. The Housing Secretary’s remarks were made during a town hall that was recorded Tuesday, in which he was interviewed by his friend and fellow conservative, Armstrong Williams. Carson, a retired neurosurgeon who [ran for president during the 2016 Republican primary](http://time.com/4246524/ben-carson-drops-out-of-race/), has spoken in the past about his personal experience living in poverty throughout his childhood in Baltimore. But the Housing Secretary is not an advocate for government assistance, criticizing programs that are “sustaining \[people\] in a position of poverty.” However, there are some exceptions, according to Carson. “I think the majority of people don’t have that defeatist attitude, but they sometimes just don’t see the way, and that’s where government can come in and be very helpful,” he said in the interview. “It can provide the ladder of opportunity, it can provide the mechanism that will demonstrate to them what can be done.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4793372/ben-carson-poverty-state-of-mind/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4793372/ben-carson-poverty-state-of-mind/"},"headline":"Ben Carson: Poverty Is a 'State of Mind' Children Learn From Their Parents","datePublished":"2017-05-24T21:54:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T05:06:28.776Z","description":"The Housing and Urban Development Secretary is not a fan of government assistance","url":"https://time.com/4793372/ben-carson-poverty-state-of-mind/","keywords":["Government","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt53790140ba8668ea/6988b549cd1bbabd99703926/ben-carson-hud-hearing.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Aric Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/aric-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt53790140ba8668ea/6988b549cd1bbabd99703926/ben-carson-hud-hearing.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"ben carson HUD hearing","caption":"ben carson HUD hearing","creditText":"Albin Lohr-Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/government/","name":"Government"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4793372/ben-carson-poverty-state-of-mind/","name":"Ben Carson: Poverty Is a 'State of Mind' Children Learn From Their Parents"}}]}] ```