Ben Carson calls poverty 'a state of mind'

Retired neurosurgeon and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson is certainly no stranger to controversial statements.

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Carson's latest controversial comment was captured during a Wednesday appearance on a Sirius XM radio show.

“I think poverty, to a large extent, is also a state of mind,” he said. “You take somebody that has the right mindset, you 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.”

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Carson suggested that parenting plays a large role in determining poverty.

“A lot of it has to do with what we teach children ... You have to instill into that child the mindset of a winner,” he said. “If everybody had a mother like mine, nobody would be in poverty. She was a person who absolutely would not accept the status of victim.”

Carson said government can help.

“It can provide the ladder of opportunity. It can provide the mechanism that will demonstrate to them what can be done,” he said.

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Several people criticized Carson and said he is out of touch.

Carson’s full comments can be heard below.

Cox Media Group