Thoughts on systemic poverty, fault, and responsibility
I write a lot at Get Rich Slowly about habits that foster wealth and success.
Like it or not, there are very real differences between the behaviors and attitudes of those who have money and those who don’t. This isn’t me being classist or racist. It’s a fact. And I think that if we want ourselves and others to be able to enjoy economic mobility, to escape poverty and dire circumstances, we have to have an understanding of the necessary mental shifts.
The problem, of course, is that it’s one thing to understand intellectually that wealthy people and poor people have different mindsets, but it’s another thing entirely to be able to adopt more productive attitudes in your own life.
In fact, sometimes it’s downright impossible. If you’re poor, you’re often too busy struggling to survive.
The Plight of the Poor
There’s a seductive myth that poor people deserve what they get. If poor people are poor, it’s their own fault. If they wanted to be middle class (or wealthy), if they wanted to be successful, then they’d do the things that lead to wealth and success.
Look, let’s get real. Nobody wants to be poor. Nobody wants to struggle from day to day wondering where they’re going to get money for food, for clothing, for medicine. And studies show that if you give poor people cash, they really do tend to use the money to improve their lives instead of squandering it on alcohol and cigarettes.
Yes, there are absolutely people who do dumb things that keep them mired in debt and despair. No question. Some people are poor because they’ve made poor choices.
But far more people live in poverty due to systemic issues and/or historical legacy than due to a pattern of financial misbehavior. Most poor people were born into poverty and don’t have the knowledge or resources to escape it.
What’s more, poverty actually alters the way people think and behave. It’s great for us to have discussions about the mindsets of millionaires, but the truth is it can be difficult (if not impossible) for poor people to make sense of some of the things we talk about. Here’s a quote from a 2015 article about the psychological effects of poverty (from the magazine for the Association for Psychological Science):
Decades of research have already documented that people who deal with stressors such as low family income, discrimination, limited access to health care, exposure to crime, and other conditions of low [socio-economic status] are highly susceptible to physical and mental disorders, low educational attainment, and low IQ scores…
[…]Studies also show that poverty in the earliest years of childhood may be more harmful than poverty later in childhood.
Poverty breeds poverty. Economic mobility does exist and people do manage to make it to the middle class, but it’s not easy. On an individual level, people become trapped by a “poverty mindset”. On a societal level, there are systemic and historical issues that exacerbate poverty and make it difficult to escape.
This morning, Kris (my ex-wife) sent me a long Twitter rant from Linda Tirado about how poverty changes your brain. It’s fascinating. (For the past few years, Tirado has been a polarizing figure in poverty debates.) Kris also helped me edit this article, which she thinks is totally misguided. (She’s a crusader for societal change!)
Systemic Poverty in Action
As an exercise, let’s look at the single largest example of systemic poverty in the United States.
For hundreds of years, white Americans enslaved black Americans. Around 150 years ago, slavery was abolished in this country.
In 1860, slaves made up 13% of the U.S. population. After Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation on 01 January 1863 (and after the Civil War), these slaves were made free. But that freedom did not mean they were given an equal playing field with other Americans. Economically, for most black people, things got worse.
During the late 1930s, the Works Progress Administration (or WPA) conducted the Federal Writers’ Project, an attempt to create a sort of oral history of the United States. As part of this, the WPA compiled a 10,000-page collection covering 2000 interviews with former slaves. If you’ve never read it, the Slave Narratives are equal parts frustrating and fascinating. They offer a first-hand view of what life was like for black Americans both during and after slavery.
For purposes of our current discussion, the Slave Narratives clearly demonstrate the origins of black poverty in the United States. Take this volume of stories, for instance, which is peppered with anecdotes about how difficult it was for former slaves to make ends meet after the Civil War. (If you’re offended by a certain racial epithet, even when it’s used in context by members of that race, you should skip the following quotes.)
Here’s Ella Kelley from Winnsboro, South Carolina:
Money? Help me Jesus, no. How could I ever see it? In de kitchen I see none, and how I see money any where else, your honor? Nigger never had none. I ain’t got any money now, long time since I see any money.
And here’s James Johnson (“The Cotton Man”) from Columbia, South Carolina describing his experience:
It ain’t what a nigger knows dat keeps him down. No, sir. It is what he don’t know, dat keeps de black man in de background. […] I sho’ am glad I didn’t come ‘long then. I feels and knows dat de years after de war was worser than befo’. Befo’ de war, niggers did have a place to lie down at night and somewhere to eat, when they got hungry in slavery time. Since them times, a many a nigger has had it tough to make a livin’. I knows dat is so, too, ’cause I has been all ‘long dere.
If you read interviews with former slaves, you see this pattern again and again. During slavery, their basic needs — food, shelter, clothing — were provided (at the cost of their freedom, of course). After slavery, meeting these basic needs became a struggle. The former slaves talk about this period as “the hard times”, and that seems apt.
Obviously, the abolition of slavery was a good thing. But the process failed to provide a means for newly-free Americans to become self-sufficient.
Houston Hartsfield Holloway, a former slave who taught himself to read and write, became a traveling preacher after emancipation. He once wrote, “We colored people did not know how to be free and the white people did not know how to have a free colored person about them.” Colored people didn’t know the rules of the game, and they were playing at a severe disadvantage.
Please note that I am in no way defending slavery. Far from it. I’m merely pointing out that upon emancipation, black Americans did not magically become equal with white Americans. Aside from receiving their freedom, things got worse economically for the majority of former slaves.
Think of it this way: A group of friends is playing Monopoly. Everyone has been around the board a few times. Most of the players have acquired a few properties and some cash. One player has managed to build hotels on Park Place and Boardwalk. In walks another friend, Jenny. The group invites Jenny to play the game, but she has to start at square one. Not even square one, actually. She doesn’t get the same $1500 everyone else got at the start of the game. She gets nothing except the wheelbarrow token. Jenny spends the rest of the game trying to gather enough money to pay the rents when she lands on properties the other players own. She never gets an opportunity to begin stockpiling money so that she can buy property of her own.
In this situation, is it Jenny’s fault that she’s unable to compete with the other players? Of course not! She was handicapped from the start. Yet for some reason, there are people who cannot comprehend that there are large populations in the U.S. that suffer similar handicaps in real life. Yes, it’s true: The economic effects of slavery are still being felt today, more than 150 years after the institution was abolished in this country.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the poverty rate for white Americans in 2010 was 11.6%. The poverty rate for black Americans was 25.8%.
A Widespread Problem
That’s just one example. It’s not just black Americans who have been handicapped in the game of wealth.
For most of its history, the United States has been the proverbial melting pot, a place where people from other countries came to escape their pasts and to pursue more promising futures.
Many, many of the people who immigrated to the United States were poor. They fled poverty in Russia or Ireland or Italy or Poland or Germany or Mexico or China only to find a different sort of poverty here. Sure, we celebrate success stories of people who achieve the American Dream — as we should! — but there are just as many stories of families who came to the U.S., worked hard, and…struggled to get by. (Don’t get me started on Native Americans. They’ve been screwed over repeatedly, essentially been forced into poverty. The afore-mentioned Census data revealed that Native Americans had the highest poverty rate at 27.0%.)
By this point, I’m sure some of you are bemoaning the fact that I’m a bleeding-heart liberal. I’m not. And, generally speaking, Get Rich Slowly does not do politics. (I’m doing my best to keep this piece apolitical too.)
I did, however, grow up in poverty. Not ex-slavery poverty, but poverty nonetheless. Post-poverty, I spent nearly twenty years digging out of debt. While my life is comfortable now (and I have plenty of money), that hasn’t always been the case. I have lots of financial empathy for people who are poor because I have first-hand experience with some of the problems they face.
I’m not willing to dismiss the poor as stupid or ignorant or lazy or unmotivated because I don’t believe it’s true. Besides, my aim at Get Rich Slowly is to help everybody get better with money, no matter where they’re starting from.
Solving Poverty One Person at a Time
But here’s where I part ways with my more progressive friends: While I agree that there are very real problems with systemic poverty in this country (and, more so, in the world at large), I think it’s pointless to try to fix these problems on a grand scale. It’s never going to happen. You’re not going to eliminate poverty through government policy. You’re not going to eliminate poverty through redistribution of wealth. You’re not going to eliminate poverty by trying to make wealthy people feel guilty or by inciting class warfare.
Sure, we as a society should foster economic policies that make it possible for everyone to have the opportunity to succeed. No question. But I believe that poverty must be solved one person at a time.
I believe strongly that the best way to help individual people escape poverty — to escape it permanently — is to teach them the skills and give them the tools needed to improve their circumstances, to show them that the quickest and easiest way for them to defeat poverty is to do it themselves.
Your situation may not be your fault but it is your responsibility. It’s up to you to change things for the better. It’s up to you to learn how money works, then use that knowledge to build the life you want. It’s up to you to dig out of debt, shake the shackles of poverty, and work your way toward financial freedom.
Here’s something actor Will Smith posted to Instagram a couple of weeks ago about the difference between fault and responsibility:
If you’re poor, it’s probably not your fault that you’re poor. But like it or not, it’s your responsibility to escape that poverty.
Meanwhile, I believe the rest of us have a responsibility to:
- Acknowledge that not everyone enjoys the same start in life,
- Create a “level playing field”, removing barriers to class mobility, and
- Do what we can to help those who are less fortunate work to improve their situation.
What does that mean for you? I don’t know. Only you can make that call.
For me, it means meeting with anyone who wants to pick my brain. It means publishing material at Get Rich Slowly that can help people of all circumstances better manage the money they have. It means teaching migrant workers how to budget. It means investing in businesses that help people to help themselves.
I do believe that wealthy people and poor people think differently. And I do believe economic mobility is possible in the United States. But I also believe that it’s callous to dismiss poor people as lazy, stupid, and unmotivated. Poverty is a weight. It’s a handicap. It’s a trap. We should be doing what we can to help others escape this trap.
Again, I recognize that this topic is loaded with political ramifications. While we generally steer clear of politics at GRS, I understand that this discussion is going to go there. That’s fine. What’s not fine are name-calling, facile arguments, and gross generalizations. Please keep the conversation civil!
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There are 42 comments to "Thoughts on systemic poverty, fault, and responsibility".
So, we have 45 million Americans living below the poverty line and you think individual actions will fix that problem? That problem is way too large for individual actions to fix it. Also, unless we give people hope that when they claw their way out of poverty, they can stay there, how do you expect them to even try? One false move or one spell of bad luck and you are right back where you started.
You are only going to eliminate poverty through government policy. The problem is just too big to tackle on an individual basis. We can certainly come at it from both ends, but, the systemic problems holding people back are political problems, not individual problems.
I disagree with this statement: “You are only going to eliminate poverty through government policy.” Governments have been trying to fix poverty for thousands of years. So far, it hasn’t happened.
I’m not saying that we should stop trying to do so at a larger level. What I’m saying is: If your plan to escape poverty is to wait for somebody else to fix the problem, then I believe you’re going to be waiting a mighty long time.
So, yes, it’s my opinion that individual action is the solution. It’s the only reliable solution, at this point. That may suck, but it’s the way it is. When I look at people in my life, the ones who have exercised economic mobility, the ones who have escaped poverty, are the ones who took action themselves. They’ve been self-directed and proactive.
Again, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to find a policy-level solution as a nation. But I’m skeptical that we’ll find one.
You are saying the only reliable solution is to get a bunch of people to act individually to fix a problem that affects roughly 15% of this country. I don’t mean to be cynical (it’s what Gen Xers do best), but, that does not sound reliable or like a solution at all. People are selfish. They mostly operate in their own self interest.
Yes, governments have been trying to fix the situation for a long time (not thousands of years). On the flip side, individuals have been free to act to fix the problem for even longer. How well is that going?
Clearly individual actions are important and the government can’t compel people to get out of poverty, but, we as a nation are failing poor people. We are selfish. We don’t care that our social contracts are all broken. Corporations no longer share the wealth with their workers, they only care about sharing it with stockholders. People seem to be retreating more and more into their own individual groups and not participating in society at large.
I agree with Canada guy below, we should at least start with universal healthcare. The fact that we don’t have that in this country is a moral failing.
You aren’t going to get an argument from me on the health care end of things. While GRS is apolitical on 95% of all issues, health care is not one of them. The health care system in the United States is fucked up and it’s time we scrap it in favor of something less profit-motivated. The profit motive is harming the health of this country, not helping it. (And I’m saying this as a die-hard capitalist.)
RE: Corporations. They haven’t become more greedy. They’ve always acted in their self-interest. It’s their nature. I don’t hold it against them. If that’s something that we, as a country, don’t like, we can fix it. But we’ve shown little inclination in that regard over the past 200 years. (This is probably because despite their faults, corporations provide a great deal of economic good for the population as a whole).
But back to poverty: I’m not saying the only reliable solution to poverty is for millions of individuals to act individually. What I’m trying to say is that if you are in poverty, then the only reliable solution to your specific circumstances is for you to take charge of the situation. You cannot wait for somebody else to fix it for you. Sure, extrapolated to a grand scale, that means millions of different individuals working for themselves by themselves. But we’re never going to get that on a grand scale either. I want people to forget about what other people are doing and what the government is doing. I want them to focus on themselves, what their goals are, and how they can achieve them. This is true at all socio-economic levels, but especially for the poor.
Meanwhile, those who are sympathetic to the roots of systemic poverty and who have the power to make changes can work to make changes in the ways that they think are best.
So, I guess I’m saying it really is a two-pronged solution. But for an individual person in poverty, the key is becoming proactive and exercising agency in whatever way possible.
I’m unclear how you believe capitalism ends where healthcare begins. Provision of healthcare can be a moral question, but it has to be done within a system that works. If you believe capitalism works how can you believe it ends with healthcare.
Healthcare isn’t a right or privilege, but a commodity and we need to treat it as such.
I agree that healthcare in the US is messed up, but I think it’s mostly because of the regulations and the fee-for-service system, not capitalism. I think that healthcare in the US is only vaguely a market, and it’s problems can’t be blamed on capitalism.
Other than that, I agree
Actually, (some) governments have only been trying to fix poverty since the last century. The Scandanavian nations, Germany, amongst others have been rather successful.
I would say that with a problem that big the only way TO solve it is on an individual level.
Where government gets IN THE WAY of people getting out of poverty we need to work to remove those barriers. For example there is some good work being done at state levels to remove licensing requirements on a lot of jobs like hair washing or hair braiding. These are skills that a lot of people use as a first step out of poverty.
But the government can’t lift people out of poverty, especially if there are cultural reasons for it, which there often are. I am not saying poor people have culture problems. But many culture problems can lead to poverty and government programs can’t fix that.
Ditto. I grew up poor, we had enough but I also had 9 other bothers and sisters that my parents were trying to feed a clothe. I wore hand me downs, took a brown bag lunch to school. When I was in 5th grade I got a pair of shoes from the thrift store that my mom had to dye black every couple of weeks, so I wouldn’t get picked on at school. When I was in high school if I wanted a nice pair of Nike’s I had to get a job and buy them myself. My parents were very frugal, out of necessity. They told me that they would not be able to help with college, so a worked my butt off to get good grades so that I could get scholarships.
I had aspirations that didn’t fit where I was, I wanted to be a doctor. How in the hell was I going to get to medical school. I worked my tail off, and because I didn’t have the money to pay for school, I joined the Army and they paid my way. I made it. I am a doctor now, still in the Army. My kids lives are different than mine. It wasn’t easy. I worked hard. I still do.
The government and society need to provide the opportunity, but it is our responsibility to reach a hand down and help each other up. I didn’t get here alone, and if there is someone who needs the help I will be there for them.
I appreciate your distinction that it is government’s responsibility to create opportunity, not provide a hand out. While I recognize the systemic issue, I think this is a good way to also tie in personal responsibility and dignity.
ON being poor (from a person who grew up poor):
https://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/
It’s almost entirely NOT laziness, but an inability to optimize some habits because those changes jeopardize every-day necessities. Saying “Save x% of each pay-cheque, and never touch it.” sounds good, and probably works for people with some discretionary income, but for people living on the edge, pay-cheque-to-pay-cheque, that x% is mighty hard to find. Sure there may be some bad habits found, and occasional splurges, but a lot of the time, poor peoples’ responsibilities are dictated to them by economic needs.
Yep. That’s a great piece that I considered mentioning in my article.
I think Scalzi does a good job of emphasizing the sheer fragility that comes from living in poverty. Your entire life is a house of cards that could collapse at any moment. This is one of the reasons that I believe that despite the difficulties, it’s vital for poor people to do what they can to get ahead. There’s little margin for error…
Although I agree that government policy can’t FIX this problem, I do think it can help. I grew up in Canada and, though not a perfect society by any stretch, it does have much less disparity between rich and poor. There are still many people there who make poor financial decisions and struggle with poverty, but Canada as a society has decided that it’s better to have everyone have SOME than for a few to have a lot. Health care, though not the only example of this, is evidence of this: everyone can accesss basic health care – for free – based on need. My parents never worried about having to take me to the doctor or going bankrupt because of a car accident. Having social safety nets in place – paid for by taxing those who can afford it a little bit more – gives security to everyone in a society and makes it possible to get to the point of becoming part of the middle class, since you’re not worrying about how to pay for basic needs. Again, Canada has its issues as a country, but I think its system is far more just and produces a better quality of life for its citizens.
Exactly. So many people can’t get savings started because they keep getting crushed by medical debt over and over. It’s demoralizing to save up a little bit, feel good about it, and then have your husband’s ER visit wipe it out ($2k gone). And then start over again, to be wiped out by a bunch of tests to manage your worsening asthma ($2k gone again). And then before you can even get started again, husband’s unexpected kidney stone surgery ($3k) which forces you into credit card debt. It really hurts when all of this happens in a span of 2 years. Ask me how I know…
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, trying to understand the whole “white privilege” discussion (by the way, I find that term offensive and racist in itself, but despite that I’m trying to grasp the concept).
It becomes more clear to me when I think about all of the issues that residents and teachers in poverty-stricken areas have to deal with that many of us can’t relate to such as violence and attitude and kids starting school without knowing the basics, etc.
While it’s true that everyone has the power to improve their own lives, doing so can seem like an insurmountable summit. For some people, it’s not only a difficult educational task but it might mean they have to change everything about themselves, their attitude, their vocabulary, maybe even their network of friends. They need to “conform.” In many cases, that can’t be easy or welcomed. It seems like it would be nearly impossible to stay motivated day after day.
It’s a multi-faceted and enormously complex problem. But I believe improving the situation begins with stopping the blame game. No one alive today is at fault for what happened 150 years ago. The responsibility lies with both sides to come together and be willing to teach AND learn without judgement and hatred. That’s the only way we’re going to bridge this great divide.
My understanding of the breakdown of “white privilege” is it tends to split into “majority privilege” or “class privilege”, but both of those have a statistical likelihood in the United States to align with having “white” skin. But there isn’t much you can do about being in a majority, and class is something completely different.
Privilege is invisible. Until you start to lose it. Then you understand what you have had all along.
What WantNotToWant says. There’s an absolutely amazing piece of writing that unpacks why we white people get so upset when someone even points out our whiteness, and why many of us go ballistic when we are told it conveys privilege. Highly recommend this reading: https://libjournal.uncg.edu/ijcp/article/viewFile/249/116
I’d add that in this cultural moment, with the porous constant churn of news and social media, white people now feel less intellectually protected…and that’s having predictable, often toxic, consequences for people of color. That said, some of us are embracing this exposure, educating ourselves, and vowing to be smarter and better. I bet a lot of us on this list will do that.
Also, I highly recommend the book “Evicted” by Matthew Desmond. It shows just how fragile life can be for the poor.
That was an excellent book. It illustrates the plight of the poor, but you also can’t help but be extremely frustrated with the “land lords” in that book. They don’t help at all.
So back during slavery, the slave owners would have to purchase a slave, house them, feed them, and look after their investment by maintaining their health. They also had to stop them running away. All this carried great cost to the landowner/slave owner.
When the thought was proposed that you pay these people a poor wage, they then go and feed themselves, house themselves and if they run away or die then you can just get some other unfortunate person to replace them. It’s a no brainer from a business point of view. Cheap labour at unlimited supply. As long as there is unemployment, the capitalist machine will steam ahead, abd there will always be poverty as if you have an underclass you can use the welfare state to either force them out of work or into work as the economy requires.
Every capitalist society needs an impoverished and trapped underclass to provide cheap labour.
Wishing it away will cripple your stock market investments…
“If you’re poor, it’s probably not your fault that you’re poor. But like it or not, it’s your responsibility to escape that poverty.”
Having been born poor, I know exactly what you’re talking about. Growing up poor in another country gave me a different perspective. My Dad, having been through famine and 10 years of hard forced labour, had zero patience for any complains–no matter how many stomach worms I had, no matter how little heating we had in the winter, or how many bullies teased me for being poor in school. I didn’t choose to be poor. But it did give me an appreciation for money and grit. In China, we didn’t any social safety nets. There was only 2 choices. Fight your way out of poverty or die. We chose to fight.
In case you’re curious, I wrote about what it’s like to be poor, from an immigrant’s perspective on CNBC:
https://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/03/how-growing-up-poor-made-me-a-bad-a.html
We shouldn’t judge people for being poor, I agree. I also believe that you can’t help someone unless they’re willing to help themselves first.
I think the problem in breaking it down is that both are true: There are many behaviors that contribute to being poor, and there are many challenges to stop being poor even if you don’t have those behaviors.
Obviously this is a complex issue and it breaks down in many ways. One issue is commonly referred to as the Matthew Effect, though it’s named for a Bible verse (“For to every one who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”—?Matthew 25:29) it’s the concept that changing your direction is difficult, and the lower you fall (or higher you rise) it is more likely that you will keep falling (or rising). I don’t consider this a philosophy we should follow, but just a human truth we need to work with. It has been demonstrated that the more life beats you down the more likely you are to lose the next “fight”. I think this is why the “hand up” is so important when talking about poverty. I isn’t just about resources but about how a person interacts with the world. this is also why the culture can be important. There are aspects of culture that can make the path up look steep or inaccessible and discourage you from even trying.
Food for thought: You reach back to slavery, but black poverty rates were lowest right before modern poverty programs were enacted (I can email you the references if you like). There were definitely struggles within the black community after slavery, but a couple generations later black people had made huge strides despite Jim Crow and other GOVERNMENT programs intended to keep them down. But once the GOVERNMENT war on poverty started in the 60’s poverty within the black community got WORSE, not better.
Research by the Brookings Institution have shown if you can do three things: 1) Graduating from high school, 2) Waiting to get married until after 21 and do not have children till after being married., and 3) Having a full-time job. Your chance of falling into poverty is just 2 percent. Meanwhile, you’ll have a 74 percent chance of being in the middle class.
We can argue about the difficulty in accomplishing those things and if we think they should be cultural expectations. But they definitely speak to what behaviors lead into and out of poverty.
The intent of the War on Poverty was good and I do believe many people were helped by it. However, it seems hand outs in the form of welfare (cash payments) do not in the long run help those in poverty. My personal opinion is that if we, as a country, do not start caring about and taking care of children from newborn through their elementary years we will continue to grow adults who do not know how to cope. ALL children should have health care, dental care, free breakfast and free lunch at school every day!! It is hard to learn when you are sick and/or hungry. This may seem like I am a socialist but really I am not. I agree with Will Smith… there comes a point that everyone is responsible for themselves but we should try to level the field for them when they are children.
I disagree, but I understand where you’re coming from. When it comes to government programs I agree that the intent is often good and many people are helped. But government by nature isnt a good vehicle for good works, at least not the federal government. Local governments can sometimes do good things because they can take local population, climate, and geography i to account.
My husband was poor. My son in law was poor. Both have tremendous IQs (that bologna that poor have lower IQs stems from how IQ tests were developed and normed). Both started to work for “family money” by the age of 10. Both hunted for birds for dinners. I was brought up upper middle class and most of what I read here are from that class.
I have worked with rural poor and Native poor.
Here are the things I see make a difference:
1) Access to health care (including WIC). Health care access should, at the very least, be open to people making under $60,000 or less. Why that? Because people under that level are giving up at least 1/6th of their money for health care (if they have access to any doctors at all). That means most teachers, policemen and firemen would be eligible for free health care….
2) Access to a good basic education. Forget all the gobbolie gook. Teaching vocabulary,reading and math in small, hands on, play focused primary grades. Exposure is everything. You cannot read “duck” until you know what a duck is. At fourth grade teach economics of purchasing. I cannot tell you how many fourth graders did almost all of the shopping since their (mostly) moms were working 12- 14 hours a day. When they get that money—those cool shoes look oh so good.
3) A place to cash checks (or having a FREE bank account). I was appalled at how many of “my parents” had to pay a percent to cash their min wage paycheck and then spend the day driving from creditor to creditor to pay bills. That is total BS! It really upset me.
And then simplicity.
Backpacks of food from the schools. We started this at our rural school after a food drive for the food bank. One of our students was caught “stealing” from the food drive. Why? He had two sibs who had no food. Now the school packs backpacks to be taken home every weekend- no names, no follow up–just food (canned meats, veggies, and fruits along with a voucher for milk). Actually, these kids were lucky. Most of the food was supplied by the teachers. What happens when the teachers cannot do this?
And the controversial
Give every child a supplement in some way (again, phasing out at a certain income). Do not give SSI to children with disabilities – especially Mental handicapped or Autistic. I know, not cool. We have to figure out a different way. I cannot tell you how many times I was approached declare a child (I taught 2.4.&6th grades) mentally unfit so the parent could collect. It stinks for the child.
Last, stop being color blind. The poor are every color of the rainbow. They exist in every part of the country.
Jan, You said everything I wanted to… As a child of poverty myself I appreciate your opinion so much.
Jan, I couldn’t agree with you more, and I’ll just add I want to underine everything you just said about how poor people are locked out of accessing banks and are severely hobbled by not having those services, and that is something that is often overlooked by those who study the issue.
I think a way to solve the problem would be to let people use the post office as a simple savings bank, the way they do in Europe. No or loans or anything like that, but it would give millions of people a safe place to keep money that they could access nation wide, that would not excessively nickle and dime them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_savings_system
You write:
>>… poverty actually alters the way people think and behave.<>Look, let’s get real. Nobody wants to be poor. <<
Yes, that's true. But the hardest thing to do is change one's thinking. (I think you are agreeing with me, but I may be wrong…)
And it is often government regulations that keep people in poverty. Not just at the local level. If you haven't, read this article on Federal housing policy that mandated racial boundaries:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/24/upshot/how-redlinings-racist-effects-lasted-for-decades.html
and how it has basically mandated poverty.
There is a documentary about the Pruitt Igoe public housing project (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pruitt-Igoe_Myth) that goes into detail about how deeply flawed public housing and welfare policies lead to broken families and an even greater cycle of poverty.
This was NOT a good article written by you.
I’m very disappointed that you have even taken this route.
Jesus said “we will ALWAYS have the poor and the infirmed”
If Jesus, the son of God, couldn’t cure the poverty syndrome, what makes you think anyone or anything else can?
There will ALWAYS be people who will NOT work, will ALWAYS be sick or ill.
Get over it. And accept the fact that poverty, just like the sun rising and setting, will ALWAYS be with us.
Again, this was a very silly article and a total waste of my time reading (partially)
If you think that Jesus wouldn’t want us to try to help those who have less, I don’t know what Bible you’re reading. The fact that modern American Christianity is tied up with “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” thinking is appalling to me, and doesn’t align with the Jesus I know who sought out the orphans, widows, and other poor/marginalized of society.
Herman, I am not sure what kind of Christianity you follow but I don’t subscribe to it. Just because there will “always” be poor and helpless people does not mean a person should ignore those in need.
I follow your blogs for years, but I don’t comment because English is not my native language, but this time I NEED to Thank you for this GREAT piece of writing! It is very deep and insightful. I reread it many times. Very few bloggers have that courage, to point the truth and give hope at the same time. Most of the personal finance bloggers are (un)intentionally putting the blame on the poor. The majority of articles are about how everyone can become rich and prosperous, if he wants. Even people who were once poor, play the blame game, suffering from Survivorship bias. Yes, its not that easy, yes for every success story, there are 100 who failed, but only the winners write. Yes luck plays a role and when you have given a poor hand you can play the best out of it and still loose. And yes at the same time, there is hope, you can do things to improve your life. May be will not finish rich and prosperous in my life time, but having knowledge in personal finance will give me different opportunities and mindset, my children or nest generation will be middle class. Sometimes the transition between classes is more slower, than we wish.
This is an era of mob phycology, and extremist political correctness. An era when educational institutions that used to encourage open mindedness now teach strict intolerance of differing points of view. I commend you for daring to publish an article that’s full of facts that will only appeal to open minded, reasonable people.
I was poor growing up. I knew others who had it worse, and more that had it better. We all had access to the same societal safety net, and dealt with the same obstacles. Now, decades later, some of us (from the old neighborhood) have made it to the middle class. Some are still poor. Occasionally good or bad luck played a role, but mostly it was individual effort and strategies that made the difference.
Thank you for this post, J.D., it’s obviously been thought-provoking, and I’m glad you brought up the systemic and historical factors that have contributed to multi-generational poverty. When I look at my own experience, I’d say both individual actions (my own and various mentors) and government policies made it possible for me to move up the socio-economic ladder.
To be honest, I didn’t grow up ‘poor’, but my father was very irresponsible about money, and there were times when I was in high school that our family was in a lot of debt and pretty tight financial circumstances. We lived in a part of the city where there was a lot of assisted housing and some of my friends in elementary school did come from families who were actually poor, so I saw what that world was like. In contrast, the high school I went to drew from a wider geographic area, and some of my friends were from very affluent families, so I also saw what that world was like.
On an individual level, I think I benefitted from seeing a range of what was possible for the future – I ended up being the first person in my family to go to university, and at the time I just assumed I would go too, because my friends all thought that way. One of the things that struck me when I read Hillbilly Elegy was how much of a challenge it was for J.D. Vance to function successfully in the ‘higher class’ world, since he had no understanding of its habits, codes, and values. I was lucky in my friendships with people who introduced me to that world and the way things worked.
I also had people in my life who gave me job opportunities, which involved them stepping up on my behalf and taking a chance on me.
When I went to university, I was able to afford to go without needing money from my parents (this was in the 70’s) through a combination of summer and part-time jobs, government grants and loans, and private bursaries.
Here’s where I think federal and provincial government policies directly helped me. I’m Canadian, so my family was protected from financial ruin due to health issues. If one of us had had a serious medical problem when I was in high school, we’d have been bankrupt and probably lost our house. Due to my father’s poor choices, we had no personal financial safety net.
I went to good public schools where I got a decent education, met a lot of different kinds of people, and had my horizons expanded in many ways. University tuition was affordable, so I finished school with a manageable level of debt. Investing in my education was good government policy; my taxes over 30 years of working in a well-paying white-collar job paid back the money they gave me many times over.
Individual drive and effort can only take you so far. Government policies can make some doors easier to open for those who are able and lucky enough to work their way through them.
“Yes, there are absolutely people who do dumb things that keep them mired in debt and despair. No question. Some people are poor because they’ve made poor choices.”
What’s frustrating is it is so easy to find these people and believe they represent all poor people.
Fantastic article. I think you said a lot of things that people won’t dare say for fear of backlash. I agree with your statements. I do not believe government policies will totally eliminate poverty. I think people should educate themselves too and take on the responsibility to get themselves out, but then we start to encounter other topics that prohibit this education (i.e. how the education system is also systemically against Blacks and those in poverty). It’s unfortunate to say it, but the system and all its aspects and umbrellas is designed for them to fail, to be trapped, and to never escape poverty. It’s extremely tricky because all the odds are against them. Every single one. Great points though.
In early January, a 20-unit building in a falling-down, slumlord-run apartment complex near my house burned down. It was a miracle no one was killed. Video footage of parent tossing their children over the third-floor balcony into the arms of firefighters made national news.
In my neighborhood, we have tried various ways to help residents rebuild.
First, cash. We raised $14,000 easily because of the news coverage and were able to give seven families $2K to start over. People donated clothing and household items and we had a giveaway on King Day. Everyone could come and get what they wanted. We did a huge toiletries drive and gave everyone a gym bag full of toiletries.
Then, the real work, sourcing furniture and other items. It is slow-going and we are still grinding away.
Meeting the families has been fascinating. This complex charges pretty high rent for the area, $1,000/month, but the units are large, three-bedroom, and most importantly, low standard with ye old credit check. Most of the families were barely hanging on trying to scrape together rent when the fire struck. Some say they had the rent in cash when the fire struck and it all burned up. They have so many problems.
In many cases, the family on the lease was not the family living in the apartment. In several cases, families were doubled and tripled up. So many kids. One mom has eight. Several have four or five.
It is hard not to judge. It is also hard to provide real help. We can get them the furniture they need for this particular apartment, but how long will they be able to stay here? It’s not like they would be able to move it. Once you lose this place, it’s generally going homeless, staying w. friends or family if your lucky or trying to get into the shelter system.
I am so bitter toward the slumlord, who positions herself as some benevolent pillar of the community while charging families $199 to move to a new unit in the complex when their previous unit burned to the ground! But if this type of sub-standard housing did not exist, where would people in such dire circumstances go? Residents have a variety of jobs, most paying $10 – $11/hr. We are inclined to help the people who need the least help, because they have better life skills.
It is actually a pleasure to help them, as they are doing a lot to help themselves and advance their situations. But we keep reminding ourselves to keep plugging away at the families that are not easy to help as they need it the most. All this to say … the helping one person at a time model is going to be more successful for some than for others. Not what I would ever call a solution. More like a stopgap until the community addresses underlying causes, def. w. significant input from the government.
I think the best we can hope for is to help and educate people to do the best they can and, at the same time, have firm government assistance and tax laws in place to limit the extremes. For example, in a modern day developed country it is inexcusable for people to be malnourished, die of exposure, not receive an decent education, or suffer from lack of access to basic medical care (which, right now, means vaccines, checkups, and healing injuries, but probably not heart-lung transplants). By the same token, the other extreme shouldn’t get out of hand either. No matter how well fed everyone is, or how many of them have cars and air conditioning, if too few people have too much wealth then everyone else becomes chattel.
Many of the problems of poverty are caused by “unseen” conditions which as a society we cannot face. A large part of our difficulties are due to failure to understand that more than one level of poverty exists. Americans must recognize that we have a sub-poverty group which cannot rise above life’s most difficult situations. This group is not only deprived of food, clothing, shelter, skills, but it is also lacking the ability to think is possible to overcome the grinding conditions in which it exists. A child raised where it is taught that “we are poor people” may never dream of another way to live. Problems with brain development do occur, along with physical abuse, neglect, an unstable home. Shame and guilt will cause people to fail to try to find a better way, to accept that “I am a flawed person” worthy only of punishment. Drug and alcohol use is common with the sub-group as is criminal behavior, all of which insure the problems will be passed along to future generations. My experience as an educator in schools of the impoverished and the private schools of the wealthy is that until the comfortable “see” the distressed… nothing will change.
I used to think like you did until I read a Wall Street Journal article about a little boy in NYC having witnessing two murders on his street before the age of six. I thought imagine the trauma. Imagine what it does to your mindset. You can’t undo it. Imagine this child walking to school on a dangerous street everyday, at a certain point feeling like he has to join a gang or die. Imagine this kid as a young adult with no way to work and save money fro college because it’s too dangerous for businesses to set up shop in his neighborhood. This is systemic stuff. Trauma. I watched a show about some kids getting on a rowing team in Chicago and it changed their lives. It changed ALL their lives. My point is this is nuanced. The other thing is those who hold the financial power have historically subverted and profited from the programs that had been intended to help the poor. There is so much to this.