If you have never been poor...

Imagine yourself in a desert; sand for miles, when it is hot it is oven hot and when it is cold it is freezing.  There is no food unless you can eat insects or maybe cactus and there is no water to drink.  There is no where to buy what you need.  And no place to get a job.  There are other people, many other people, in the same situation you are.  If one of them pulls out a bottle of water or a candy bar, the fight for who gets to consume it is on.

Now change the scenery.

You are in an urban area surrounded by dilapidated buildings, failing vehicles, and there are thousands of other people, also in this area.  There is no where to work.  There are no places to live that have functional heat or air.  The water is contaminated, plumbing doesn't work, and electricity is frequently off--nonpayment or failed infrastructure.

There is no where to buy anything but liquor or junk food within walking distance.  No one has a car that works.  The bus service is not easily accessed from here and taxi's and Uber won't go there.  No one can pay for the ride, anyway.  The refrigerator doesn't work even when the electricity is on.  There ARE insects but no one wants to eat them or even live with them, but there isn't any cactus.

I have spent my life living paycheck to paycheck.  I have been broke.  I have even had a few of times that I couldn't eat a meal.  I have never truly been poor.

I have worked with people that were poor.  I have taught people that were poor.  I have talked with people that have always been poor.  But I have never been poor.

Paycheck to paycheck is tough, scary, anger-inducing, hopeless, tiring and depressing.

Poor is a whole other level of living.

When you are poor, a nurse or a plumber are part of the rich folks.

When you are poor, owning a house makes you middle class--and that is if it is a little house in a questionable neighborhood--mcmansion is rich.

When you are poor, you know you need to get lucky, catch a break, be a superstar if you are ever going to do better.

I have talked with 13 year olds that thought that having a baby so they could get WIC and SNAP was going to be a better life.  I have seen 14 year old boys that broke the law so they could quit sleeping in the park--the park at night was scary.  I have talked with homeless people about taking care of their chronic diseases and their response is not how, but why?  Why?

Healthcare routinely treats homeless people as if going back to the street was both a choice and their home.  I have never heard any child say "when I grow up, i want to be homeless".

Schools enroll students by utility bill as proof of residence.  I would see kids out there in the streets during school days, never in school, and wonder if they were homeless and thus couldn't enroll.

We hear of people being arrested for sticking a roast down their pants and trying to walk out of a store.  We have seen people shoplift from dollar stores.  Junk food in convenience stores near schools is always a hot item.  Why are people stealing cheap items and food?  Don't confuse them with the super-rich teenager whose lawyer gets them out for emotional problems when they try to steal a 2,000$ scarf that they had the cash to buy in their purse.  We are talking survival-type thefts.  We are talking about people that are stealing items so cheap its hard to even call it petty theft, but for which the person stealing it has a need, whether physical or emotional, but no cash.  Maybe it is hunger.  Maybe they just can't keep listening to a loved one wish for such a little thing while knowing it is so far from possible.

We wonder about crime in places of  deep poverty. It is why it is so easy to blame the poor for their own situation. But in truth, when enough people are excluded from the mainstream successes and abundance and hope, they will find a way to make their own.  Such has been the cause of organized crime, cartels, and gangs since time began.  When the population of those excluded from participating in the world of opportunity and abundance becomes large enough, they create their own opportunities and abundance, and those don't fit the rules of the larger society.  The poor neighborhoods do not always hate them.  They can be seen as more Robin Hood than plague,  especially to those whose desperate needs are ignored by the "legitimate" government.

Its hard to understand that when we are  broke, cash-strapped, employed but going no where while following the rules, how so many people can be complaining about poverty and yet embracing lives of crime and drugs and sexploitation.  For most of us that talk about hard times, we have a roof over our heads all the time, the utilities may be on notice, but rarely get turned off.  Our kids go to school, and while a public school education is not currently turning out world-class educated citizens, it will teach you to read and print and do simple math.  If you are very lucky, your child will have a teacher that connects with them and still cares enough to try to make a horrible curriculum provide valuable information and insight.  Being broke is nothing like being poor.

We broke folks like to think of ourselves as sort of middle class.  We envision the poor as brown and ignorant, morally bankrupt and chemically dependent.  But where did we get that expectation.  Media has tried to keep that going. In fact, the recipients are as likely to be white as black or brown; as likely to speak English as another language.  In many states, being male makes being assisted unlikely without a physician saying you have a problem; drugs, alcohol. mental, emotional or physical, no disability, no assist. Since most of this group only gets healthcare through emergency rooms, they are unlikely to have someone diagnose them with more than "drug-seeking".  No disability papers, no further intervention.  Women with children are the most likely to qualify.  Women without children only slightly more likely than men. In about half the states, the amount of assistance can be more than the pay of a minimum wage job.

Why wouldn't the minimum wage be determined by the money number that equals the poverty level.  Why do we have jobs that will not pay a living wage.  How do we have business owners that don't work in their own business while claiming that they don't make enough to pay someone enough to live.  If you aren't working there, but are making enough for all kinds of extras, why?  Why do you get extras like playing golf  and fancy vacations while your employee needs government assistance?   If your business can't afford to pay someone for their time, you might be the one that needs to be working.

When someone gets rich off the uncompensated or undercompensated  labor of another, that is wrong.  We called it wrong when we made slavery illegal.  We called it wrong when children were worked instead of educated, and it is still wrong.

So finally, why do we have approximately 20% of the population in the wealthiest nation in the world falling near or below the poverty level.  Why are so many children living there.  How did that happen.  How can that be right.  How can we let that continue.  If the annual income of this country was spread out more evenly, no one would make less than $50,000 a year.  

We could still be periodically broke--but no one would ever need to be poor again.