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BamaD -> RE: What is, "poverty?" (12/1/2012 9:12:57 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: erieangel
Poverty is having no phone, no car, no cable TV (though I did have a color TV, so by some standards I wasn't poor) struggling to pay the utilities.
Poverty is having to feed your young children ramen noodles for dinner every day for nearly a week because your food stamps didn't last the entire month.
Poverty is wearing the same clothes for 2-3 days to cut down on the amount of laundry you take to the laundry mat in an effort to save money.
Poverty is standing in line for 3 hours in order to get a free turkey only to be turned away because the agency only had 1500 of them and you got there an hour later than most everybody else, who started to line up 4 hours before they even started giving the turkeys away. And now, with only 3 days to Thanksgiving, you have no means to provide a Thanksgiving dinner to your family.
Poverty is wearing shoes with holes in them, clothes that had obviously seen better days and skipping meals so that your children don't go hungry or face teasing for not having at least decent looking clothing.
Poverty is an 18 yr. old high school senior who had been rejected by his adoptive parents 4 years before; coming out of placement and relying on the kindness of school officials for things like a winter coat, bus fare and even hygiene products until he can find a job a pay for some of those things himself because PA no longer has general assistance.
And finally, poverty looks like this homeless situation in NYC:
http://www.alternet.org/how-one-gop-plutocrat-helped-make-20000-kids-homeless?akid=9741.286161.XyTX3H&rd=1&src=newsletter753280&t=3
All the while we have this:
http://www.alternet.org/economy/eight-reasons-wall-street-greed-cause-and-solution-phony-fiscal-cliff-crisis?akid=9741.286161.XyTX3H&rd=1&src=newsletter753280&t=5
And yes, all of the examples I gave come from personal experience. Though some of the examples were faced by people I know, many were faced by myself.
Some say there is no poverty in the US because of the social safety net. Consider this: If there truly was no poverty, or so little poverty it could actually be handled by private charities (which I would actually never advocate, no matter the poverty rate) there would be very little need for many of the social programs. The food stamp program was developed to serve to populations---the urban poor who struggled to feed themselves and the family farmers, many of whom were themselves poor. In fact, it was only by putting the food stamp program into a farm bill and saying how much the program would help the farmer that democrats were able to get republican support for the program at all. (But then Eisenhower was only able to build the interstate highway system by declaring it a national defense measure).
When talking about poverty or the lack of poverty in this country, people often forget how poverty affects those living in it--especially the children. Children in poverty don't do as well in school as their peers, from K-12 grades, those in extreme poverty have lower grades, lack social skills and often suffer from depression which in young children will manifest as behavioral problems. They often drop out of school because of the depression and a sense of being of targeted due to the behavior problems and give up. And while some will show stereotypical signs of malnutrition by being extremely underweight, most will be overweight. This is caused from a diet consisting mainly of carbohydrates and lacking in fresh fruits and vegetables. Potato, pasta, cereal and rice are some of the cheapest foods on the market and poor people buy them in abundance because they are also very filling. Food pantries also tend to give away these starchy staples more than anything else.
I read recently that Cory Booker was going to try to live for one week on the equivalent to what a food stamp recipient would receive. In NJ, that's about $1.47 a day. While I don't believe one week is enough time to paint an accurate picture of how abysmally we feed the poor, I eagerly await what Mr. Booker has to say after his week on a "food stamp diet".
poverty is when you are getting help from people on food stamps to feed your family. poverty is when you haven't have heat or hot water for three years.
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