My coworker, who has lived approximately 25 of his 50 years in the U.S., made the statement the other day that there are no poor people in the United States. I told him that wasn’t true, had he ever read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? He hadn’t. It was a silly retort, but I did mean I believe poor people exist in this country.
I forgot about this exchange until I was reading an article about the CHIP extension that Bush vetoed. In the article, they described an eligible child for the federal insurance program as belonging in a household whose combined income was up to 250% of the poverty level. For a 3-person household, this is $42,925. I used my calculator, and double-checked on the government website, to find that makes the poverty level for that 3-person household $17,170. The Census Bureau says 36.5 million were living in poverty in 2006, about 12% of the population.
Now, assuming that is net income, and assuming I had no debt to repay, and also assuming that I either had full medical coverage (doubtful on that salary) or else myself or my cat did not have any health problems, I found with my little calculator that I could easily live on $17,170 a year. But that’s just me and my cat. How comfortable would that be for three people? If I recall correctly, my lease states that no more than two people can live in my one-bedroom apartment, so we’d either have to lie or move house. If one or two of the three were children, hopefully they would grow slowly or finish growing quickly so we wouldn’t have to think about new clothes too much. But I think if we all stayed healthy, we could manage. So is that actually poverty? Would we actually be poor?
What is poor? My coworker seems to think there is a cut and dried definition of poor, and that according to that definition poor people don’t exist in the U.S. He says that having to crowd several people into a small house is the norm in other countries, and so that is not a hardship if you have to do the same here. My argument is, you can’t compare third world poverty to first world poverty. In a land of plenty, not being able to buy clothes for your growing child, having to share a house with 2 or more families because not one family can afford it alone, not being able pay for cancer medication – all those things are signs of poverty. In a third world country that may be just the State of Things, but in the richest country in the world?
Umm, has he not walked two blocks anywhere near Seattle Center? 🙂
My father raised a family of 8 on just about $20,000 one year, and we lived in another family’s garage for a few months when he lost his job. It was a government subsidized living and I really don’t think I’d be here if it wasn’t for that five pound brick of cheeze. We didn’t get the best healthcare, and really only in extreme emergencies did we go to a doctor. The impact of the limited healthcare is obvious in my family. That’s outside your question a bit though.
I lived in poverty and I felt poor, but knew all along that there were worse conditions elsewhere around the world, and the impact of that was one of pride in the sense that my rice didn’t have bugs in it unless you left the tupperware lid off and the roaches got in, and even when we ran out of food, we could easily go to a donation location somewhere nearby, there was always a way. We were poor as an individual unit, but we live in a rich country who takes pity on it’s poor and provides for them. Even the drug addicts and the wandering homeless have a roof if they really, really need it, and want it.
To me, true poverty exists overseas in those countries where sharing the wealth isn’t an option. I think I understand your coworkers response.
your friend is right. the poorest people in this country still have access to some kind of health care, free internet in many puiblic libraries, and a wealth of handouts and shelters.
americans throw away so much food that it is easy to subsist on scraps.
many msas have free transit within their downtown cores, and there are churches and organizations that will teach you how to read, type, use a computer, or even english.
i have been to few othre countries, and none of them were third-world, but do you think the homeless in [insert poor country name here] can get free internet access? how about vitamins?
our bums eat beef!
Is there poverty in this country? Do we have intigent folks in this country? Absolutely, yes, on both questions. Sit in your comfortable home, sit back, close your eyes and try to envision makeshift shacks, with no electricity, no water, no indoor plumbing. See the children get ready for school with none of the embellishments we take for granted. How do they bathe for school? brush their teeth? Are they are wearing hand me down clothes or thrift store specials? Do they have shoes? Do they look healthy? Does the school system disregard them from day one and labeled “going nowhere kids”? My parents were migrant workers, who moved us every year from upstate New York to just north of Key West, Florida, following the crops from North to South. My brother, 3 sisters and myself never started and finished a school year in the same place. We were always the new poor kids that teachers typically (not always, but often) labeled as “going nowhere” and warehoused by the system. My parents were uneducated, working the fields 7 days a week and their children hit the fields of South Florida every week-end to help out. There was no individual money so we learned to pull together on everything and make our lot in life better. My mother insisted we do well in school and she set high standards for us. Working side by side with her in the fields, she would often say, “you are going to college”. I could not comprehend how anyone as poor as we were could go to any school if it required money. Mother insisted good grades would open doors. She was right. My brother was granted scholarships and received a Ph.D in chemistry; one sister received a master’s in chemistry and another is a social worker. My degree is in English education. Moral of my little story is this: any person can be born poor but that does not have to be their lifelong situation, and yes, education, is the biggest, baddest and fastest way to bring yourself up from poverty level to the middle class most of us strive for. I am fortunate in that my mother would not allow failure, excuses or nonperformance from her children. Our success is her victory.
pete and monkey, i see what you are saying. however, you are proving my point. if poor people didn’t exist in our country, we wouldn’t need programs like welfare, soup kitchens, etc.
I see and understand as well. I guess what it comes down to is an individual’s perception of “poor”, not definition of. I can see why your coworker made the statement that they did. There is no doubt that poor, by definition, exists in this country, but I also think your coworker sees the provisions put in place for the poor in the U.S., so they really have access to more than the poor in an inpoverished nation would have, therby making them not poor because of this access. My initial response was based on your coworkers observation, not really an attempt at defining poor.