I get tired of rewriting the same things on social media, so here’s my response to this post that just won’t go away.
The original post that's been floating around since at least last July:
The original post that's been floating around since at least last July:
Here was my response the first time I saw it on a friend's Facebook page a few months ago:
I get her point but it displays really a lot of privilege and ignorance on the part of the original poster.
Here’s the thing:
There is a great deal of poverty in the United States, and you’re not going to see it at Starbucks or in the suburbs. I think it’s safe to say that the average middle class (and up) American does not see it.
I’ve seen it in urban neighborhoods where schools often serve breakfast and sometimes even dinner in addition to lunch since those are the only meals some kids will be able to eat. It exists in rural areas where mechanization of farming and mining and the overall decline of mining has led to a precipitous decline in blue-collar jobs and therefore to widespread poverty.
Some of these people earn more than people in other countries living in poverty, it’s true.
But:
1-you can’t make direct comparisons between countries. You often hear that someone in such and such country lives of $1 a day. But, the cost of living in those countries is significantly lower, so their poverty line is lower. For instance, when I visited Siem Reap, a large meal in the “expensive” tourist area was $6. The only meal you can get in the US for $6 that has anywhere near the same volume of food is nutritionally poor food off the extra value meal at a fast food place. To make a valid comparison between countries or even regions within countries (Siem Reap is one of the more expensive regions in Cambodia, for example) requires a lot more data about cost of living.
2-due to the economic conditions I mentioned above, many people living in poverty in America don’t have jobs or are relegated to minimum wage, hourly pay jobs where they don’t have sick days they can take if their kid gets sick or if they need to go get a driver’s license or whatever. Those are the same jobs that many people think should still be paid only $7.25 per hour because we think they’re just for teenagers working part time while they’re in high school. The reaction to this reality is often, “well, they should go to school to get a better job.” There are volumes written on why this is fallacious thinking so I’m not going to reiterate it here. Simply put, it’s often extremely difficult to break out of poverty in America.
Besides, going to college isn’t the sure thing it once was, so many people leaving university in 2020 find themselves unable to find a good job. The knee-jerk reaction is to assume that “kids these days” want to step into high-paying jobs and won’t accept something where they can work their way up. That’s possible true for some. In some cases, it’s arrogance. In others, it’s a desire to pay off the $200,000 in loans they had to take out because that’s just how much university costs these days. There are ways around that if you live in a state with a public system that’s still reasonably priced, but many aren’t. We’ve created a monster with the expectation that everyone go to college, the cultural misconception that private schools are better and/or the cutting back in many state budgets on funding for public universities. As someone from a middle class family, I didn’t qualify for grants until I was 24, and then, only a few hundred dollars. I was fortunate to have access to state student loans and cheap tuition at BYU. Even so, I spent a long time paying that off since I chose to become an educator (thank goodness for international schools). I also had the privilege of growing up in a home full of books with two university-educated parents, and an at-home parent.
Poverty in America is a real problem. I never saw it as a child. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I was exposed to it and to the steep, obstacle-ridden uphill climb people face as they try to climb out of it. I thought we were poor growing up and there were times where we relied on government cheese and church food orders. But, I never had to skip a meal because there was nothing in the kitchen. More to the point, I always had a kitchen because we always had a home, most of the time one that was owned by my college-educated parents.
That American poverty isn’t really poverty is a dangerous myth.
Later, I posted this along with an article from The NY Times:
I get her point but it displays really a lot of privilege and ignorance on the part of the original poster.
Here’s the thing:
There is a great deal of poverty in the United States, and you’re not going to see it at Starbucks or in the suburbs. I think it’s safe to say that the average middle class (and up) American does not see it.
I’ve seen it in urban neighborhoods where schools often serve breakfast and sometimes even dinner in addition to lunch since those are the only meals some kids will be able to eat. It exists in rural areas where mechanization of farming and mining and the overall decline of mining has led to a precipitous decline in blue-collar jobs and therefore to widespread poverty.
Some of these people earn more than people in other countries living in poverty, it’s true.
But:
1-you can’t make direct comparisons between countries. You often hear that someone in such and such country lives of $1 a day. But, the cost of living in those countries is significantly lower, so their poverty line is lower. For instance, when I visited Siem Reap, a large meal in the “expensive” tourist area was $6. The only meal you can get in the US for $6 that has anywhere near the same volume of food is nutritionally poor food off the extra value meal at a fast food place. To make a valid comparison between countries or even regions within countries (Siem Reap is one of the more expensive regions in Cambodia, for example) requires a lot more data about cost of living.
2-due to the economic conditions I mentioned above, many people living in poverty in America don’t have jobs or are relegated to minimum wage, hourly pay jobs where they don’t have sick days they can take if their kid gets sick or if they need to go get a driver’s license or whatever. Those are the same jobs that many people think should still be paid only $7.25 per hour because we think they’re just for teenagers working part time while they’re in high school. The reaction to this reality is often, “well, they should go to school to get a better job.” There are volumes written on why this is fallacious thinking so I’m not going to reiterate it here. Simply put, it’s often extremely difficult to break out of poverty in America.
Besides, going to college isn’t the sure thing it once was, so many people leaving university in 2020 find themselves unable to find a good job. The knee-jerk reaction is to assume that “kids these days” want to step into high-paying jobs and won’t accept something where they can work their way up. That’s possible true for some. In some cases, it’s arrogance. In others, it’s a desire to pay off the $200,000 in loans they had to take out because that’s just how much university costs these days. There are ways around that if you live in a state with a public system that’s still reasonably priced, but many aren’t. We’ve created a monster with the expectation that everyone go to college, the cultural misconception that private schools are better and/or the cutting back in many state budgets on funding for public universities. As someone from a middle class family, I didn’t qualify for grants until I was 24, and then, only a few hundred dollars. I was fortunate to have access to state student loans and cheap tuition at BYU. Even so, I spent a long time paying that off since I chose to become an educator (thank goodness for international schools). I also had the privilege of growing up in a home full of books with two university-educated parents, and an at-home parent.
Poverty in America is a real problem. I never saw it as a child. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I was exposed to it and to the steep, obstacle-ridden uphill climb people face as they try to climb out of it. I thought we were poor growing up and there were times where we relied on government cheese and church food orders. But, I never had to skip a meal because there was nothing in the kitchen. More to the point, I always had a kitchen because we always had a home, most of the time one that was owned by my college-educated parents.
That American poverty isn’t really poverty is a dangerous myth.
Later, I posted this along with an article from The NY Times: