I came across this while browsing.  I found it quite inciteful, from a place where I came very close to being, and where we all could end up, whether we want to admit it or not.

www.scalzi.com/whatever/003704.html

Being Poor

Being poor is knowing exactly how much everything costs.

Being poor is getting angry at your kids for asking for all the crap they see on TV.

Being poor is having to keep buying $800 cars because they're what you can afford, and then having the cars break down on you, because there's not an $800 car in America that's worth a damn.

Being poor is hoping the toothache goes away.

Being poor is knowing your kid goes to friends' houses but never has friends over to yours.

Being poor is going to the restroom before you get in the school lunch line so your friends will be ahead of you and won't hear you say "I get free lunch" when you get to the cashier.

Being poor is living next to the freeway.

Being poor is coming back to the car with your children in the back seat, clutching that box of Raisin Bran you just bought and trying to think of a way to make the kids understand that the box has to last.

Being poor is wondering if your well-off sibling is lying when he says he doesn't mind when you ask for help.

Being poor is off-brand toys.

Being poor is a heater in only one room of the house.

Being poor is knowing you can't leave $5 on the coffee table when your friends are around.

Being poor is hoping your kids don't have a growth spurt.

Being poor is stealing meat from the store, frying it up before your mom gets home and then telling her she doesn't have make dinner tonight because you're not hungry anyway.

Being poor is Goodwill underwear.

Being poor is not enough space for everyone who lives with you.

Being poor is feeling the glued soles tear off your supermarket shoes when you run around the playground.

Being poor is your kid's school being the one with the 15-year-old textbooks and no air conditioning.

Being poor is thinking $8 an hour is a really good deal.

Being poor is relying on people who don't give a damn about you.

Being poor is an overnight shift under florescent lights.

Being poor is finding the letter your mom wrote to your dad, begging him for the child support.

Being poor is a bathtub you have to empty into the toilet.

Being poor is stopping the car to take a lamp from a stranger's trash.

Being poor is making lunch for your kid when a cockroach skitters over the bread, and you looking over to see if your kid saw.

Being poor is believing a GED actually makes a goddamned difference.

Being poor is people angry at you just for walking around in the mall.

Being poor is not taking the job because you can't find someone you trust to watch your kids.

Being poor is the police busting into the apartment right next to yours.

Being poor is not talking to that girl because she'll probably just laugh at your clothes.

Being poor is hoping you'll be invited for dinner.

Being poor is a sidewalk with lots of brown glass on it.

Being poor is people thinking they know something about you by the way you talk.

Being poor is needing that 35-cent raise.

Being poor is your kid's teacher assuming you don't have any books in your home.

Being poor is six dollars short on the utility bill and no way to close the gap.

Being poor is crying when you drop the mac and cheese on the floor.

Being poor is knowing you work as hard as anyone, anywhere.

Being poor is people surprised to discover you're not actually stupid.

Being poor is people surprised to discover you're not actually lazy.

Being poor is a six-hour wait in an emergency room with a sick child asleep on your lap.

Being poor is never buying anything someone else hasn't bought first.

Being poor is picking the 10 cent ramen instead of the 12 cent ramen because that's two extra packages for every dollar.

Being poor is having to live with choices you didn't know you made when you were 14 years old.

Being poor is getting tired of people wanting you to be grateful.

Being poor is knowing you're being judged.

Being poor is a box of crayons and a $1 coloring book from a community center Santa.

Being poor is checking the coin return slot of every soda machine you go by.

Being poor is deciding that it's all right to base a relationship on shelter.

Being poor is knowing you really shouldn't spend that buck on a Lotto ticket.

Being poor is hoping the register lady will spot you the dime.

Being poor is feeling helpless when your child makes the same mistakes you did, and won't listen to you beg them against doing so.

Being poor is a cough that doesn't go away.

Being poor is making sure you don't spill on the couch, just in case you have to give it back before the
lease is up.

Being poor is a $200 paycheck advance from a company that takes $250 when the paycheck comes in.

Being poor is four years of night classes for an Associates of Art degree.

Being poor is a lumpy futon bed.

Being poor is knowing where the shelter is.

Being poor is people who have never been poor wondering why you choose to be so.

Being poor is knowing how hard it is to stop being poor.

Being poor is seeing how few options you have.

Being poor is running in place.

Being poor is people wondering why you didn't leave.

Pioinient, very poinient (did I spell that right? Who cares).  But there is more.  There is the desperation of believing that there is no way out.  There is the deasperation of the futility of trying.  Good God, Good Goddess, we can do better by our fellow citizens, not to mention our fellow humans around the world.  What you fdescribe is all too true, and I have known people in all those situations. 

  NOT RIGHT, NOT FAIR, NOT AMERICAN

And it must change.  There  is no reason for the richest country in the world to accept conditions like those you accurately describe.  And yet, we can give tax breaks  to the richest amoung us.  Hopefully, it will be their last dance.

And it must change.  There  is no reason for the richest country in the world to accept conditions like those you accurately describe.  And yet, we can give tax breaks  to the richest amoung us.  Hopefully, it will be their last dance.




I totally agree.  There are even a few things on the list that I can totally relate to...but have to feel sad because there are so many people that are so worse off.




Erin :)

I totally agree.  There are even a few things on the list that I can totally relate to...but have to feel sad because there are so many people that are so worse off.




Erin :)


I don;t want to be agrumanentative, but thinks change because people make them change.  Feeling sad is how we should all feel about the state of our country and of the world, DOING SOMETHING about it requires a bit mor energy.  CNN has recently focused on teen who have made efforts to to help.  My though is that if we all... but I guess that's just a dream.

Being poor is knowing exactly how much everything costs.

I did that even before becoming poor.  It's a good thing for everybody, no matter what socio-economic "caste" they happen to fall into, to budget accordingly.



Being poor is getting angry at your kids for asking for all the crap they see on TV.

My parents did that, and they certainly aren't poor.  But they are very traditional Chinese, which meant that they expected me to work for everything that I got...I had no problem with that.  I think this is more of a parenting philosophy than a poorness issue.

Being poor is hoping the toothache goes away.

This is true.  The health insurance industry in this country is so ludicrous that my complaints would encompass a whole other thread.

Being poor is living next to the freeway.

While I didn't live in a cardboard box, most houses I've been in (even while I wasn't poor) were in close proximity to a major freeway.

Being poor is not enough space for everyone who lives with you.

So true...but also depends on where you live.

Being poor is relying on people who don't give a damn about you.

Corporate America, eh?

Being poor is an overnight shift under florescent lights.

Been there, done that.

Being poor is people angry at you just for walking around in the mall.

Actually I think it's because I'm wearing the wrong gang color :D


Being poor is the police busting into the apartment right next to yours.

I think this DID happen to me once while I was living in an apartment complex in North Carolina during graduate school...

Being poor is not talking to that girl because she'll probably just laugh at your clothes.

I had worse problems with women than what I was wearing :D

Being poor is hoping you'll be invited for dinner.

I did this even before I was poor because I'm a total tightwad :D

Being poor is people thinking they know something about you by the way you talk.

Being poor is people surprised to discover you're not actually stupid.

Being poor is people surprised to discover you're not actually lazy.

This is very interesting because a lot of people seem to look down upon me because I am temporarily stuck working in a grocery store, but once they engage me in conversation they realize that I actually know quite a bit.

Being poor is knowing you work as hard as anyone, anywhere.
This also applies to people in "white collar" positions with stupid middle managers :D


Being poor is a six-hour wait in an emergency room with a sick child asleep on your lap.
This is true of all off-hour medical care facilities.  I don't think there are enough doctors to fill demand anyway.

Being poor is never buying anything someone else hasn't bought first.

Being poor is knowing you're being judged.
I honestly don't care if strange people judge me, because they don't know me.


Being poor is checking the coin return slot of every soda machine you go by.
And payphones too.  But I do this anyway because pennies and nickels eventually add up.

Being poor is feeling helpless when your child makes the same mistakes you did, and won't listen to you beg them against doing so.
Boy I hope this doesn't happen.

Being poor is a lumpy futon bed.
Better than the floor, eh?

Being poor is people who have never been poor wondering why you choose to be so.
My parents were poor once but they worked out of it, and therefore they have a reason to wonder why I am choosing to be poor now...but that is a long story.

Being poor is knowing how hard it is to stop being poor.
With the right tools and knowledge I believe that it is more than possible to stop being poor.
However...

Being poor is seeing how few options you have.

This is true because poor people don't have the resources nor the collateral to justify a lot of financial support that will get them out of poorness.

This is very interesting because a lot of people seem to look down upon me because I am temporarily stuck working in a grocery store, but once they engage me in conversation they realize that I actually know quite a bit.


I know that feeling. I am a waiter, and I remember one night I had a big table of elitists who thought they were going to have a bit of fun at my expense by asking me about Pavlov's experiments with dogs. They were absolutley shocked that I actually knew quite a bit on the subject. They asked me incredulously "where did you learn that?!" I'm like, "I go to college."

It's a sick, sad world when people think they can judge you because of your job. A by-product of American capitalism is the notion of meritocracy - the idea that if you are a worthy person, you will be rewarded with a good job, good pay, and a general happy existence. People assume that anyone who's worth a damn couldn't possibly get stuck working in a sh!tty job, and when they find out otherwise, it's a kick in the face.

A job is a job is a job.  Even if it sucks ass.