Stop Being Poor
It would be unwise to say that poverty is solely a result of the ‘poor’ not having enough.
Poverty is expensive. Yes, you read that right.
Costs of poverty are staggering both on a micro and macro level. They're not simply the social prices one pays for being poor, such as the emotional costs inflicted by segregation, institutionalization, disenfranchisement, ignorance and division, but also the expenses associated with trying to make ends meet in a society that systemically enables poverty.
“ “It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps”.”
It's Expensive To Be Poor
Despite what one might assume, poverty can be quite costly for those who experience it, both emotionally and financially. Really, the current state of affairs in North America is not one that is fair to the poor, and is likewise one that denies economic opportunity to such groups through systemic barriers.
Poor people pay more for almost everything they buy, meaning higher expenses on top of meager budgets for food and shelter. Poor people need to spend money just to conduct the basic functions of their daily lives, and they often have to pay more for the same product or service because their choice is limited. These expenses add up, especially when a bad turn of luck strikes and someone needs a quick cash infusion.
Sometimes it can cost a lot just to get out of one's own way. It costs money to get a GED, to get a driver's license, and to acquire other forms of identification that help people qualify for jobs. It costs money to take care of one's health by obtaining proper medical or dental care, and it also costs money to maintain a quality education to the point it becomes fruitful through the form of a degree. It costs money for transportation to get to job interviews, and it costs money for child care.
When all is said and done, poor people often end up paying more simply because they are at a financial disadvantage. Poverty makes every small expense feel like an unnecessary burden, with these expenses adding up quickly.
Poverty is never an isolated phenomenon, but one that has wide-ranging implications on one's ability to succeed in all areas of society.
The Impacts Of Cyclical Poverty
The poor pay significantly more for housing than other people, sometimes 70% or 80% of their income. In fact, recent census data shows that low-income families spent over half of their income on rent or lived in substandard housing throughout 2018.
https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs
Families with unstable housing circumstances are particularly affected by poverty in more ways than one, as such individuals are less likely to have access to a stove or oven to cook with, or room to prepare food and are often forced to rely on fast foods or microwave meals. Even when families are able to prepare meals at home, they frequently do not have the money upfront to buy in bulk, resulting in higher food costs in the long run.
In this way, individuals experiencing poverty are often inclined by their own circumstances to remain within its cycle by simply doing what they need to survive. Furthermore, the attempts to overcome poverty by many are stifled by systemic forms of discrimination which make it more difficult for said individuals to obtain the resources and support they need to improve their economic status.
As many are already aware, one way to move out of poverty is through the acquisition of a higher education. While a promising notion on the surface, undertaking such an endeavor is often out of reach for many experiencing poverty. Disproportionate costs and a lack of access to school resources typically result in a bleak future for those from low-income neighborhoods in this regard.
In the same way, those experiencing poverty are less likely to have access to a computer or internet service, therefore restricting them from utilizing many of the tools which could be available for them on the web otherwise. This, in turn, serves to make the process of obtaining a higher education level or the resources to apply for things like jobs unnecessarily difficult and further perpetuates the cycle of poverty.
Perhaps Martin Luther King Jr. summed it up best when he said “It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps”.
To put it simply, where opportunities are non-existent, few successes will result.
Another pertinent reason many in poverty experience difficulty in overcoming it is because of the systemic challenges they are forced to face when attempting to do so. Credit is one of the single most important things you can have to support your financial viability, yet is one of the hardest things for the poor to obtain. Low-income Americans with poor or no credit face a variety of problems, including limited access to borrowing and higher costs when they do borrow. Those with poor credit also lack the necessary tools for achieving financial stability, such as open lines of credit. A main reason why having poor credit and not having access to a loan is detrimental for those attempting to better themselves economically lies in the fact that they often won't be able to purchase the things they need to improve their quality of life without a credit score to their name. Beyond that, poor credit often increases housing costs for those in poverty due to the higher interest rates involved when renting or purchasing a home.
“Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.”
Profiting Off Of The Poor
Society and companies alike often take advantage of the circumstances induced by poverty, often using them to leverage profit and enable the seemingly never-ending cycle.
This was studied in recent research, where the true gravity and severity of inequality and market concentration within the North American market was highlighted. Researchers conducted deep analysis in an effort to better illustrate the way in which household income is transferred from the middle class and poor to the wealthy through profit-maximization efforts on behalf of powerful companies. In their findings, it was discovered that such monopolistic price increases negatively affect almost every income group's share of national income, with the top 20% being the only outliers with rising income as a result of such practices.
In this way, companies are said to be effectively employing their market power to extract wealth from those who are of low income and shift it into the wallets of the wealthy.
https://www.nber.org/papers/w25395
By prioritizing profit over people, corporate America has created conditions under which poverty has been propagated, and in turn, contributed to the decline of welfare of a significant portion of the population.
Given its direct impact on individual's ability to provide for themselves and acquire the basic necessities of life, such monopolization can be considered to border human rights violations.
Every individual has the right to life. By enabling the effects of poverty, we are actively inhibiting individual's capacity to exercise such rights. Access to things such as housing and food shouldn't be out of reach, nor should they be reasons to be poor. Equity is a human rights issue and should be treated as such by society as a whole.
It would be unwise to say that poverty is solely a result of the ‘poor’ not having enough. It might be more accurate to describe it as an issue resulting from the accumulation of many factors, all working together in tandem to keep people impoverished.
It is clear that there are many systemic factors which contribute to perpetuating generational cycles of poverty. An inability for individuals experiencing poverty to escape their economic circumstances is not only caused by individual failings, but by larger, more pervasive socioeconomic problems which affect communities at large.
In order to address these problems, we must first acknowledge why they occur. Poverty is a man-made issue that stems from the concept of profit maximization and economic greed. It is something that is enabled by man's own practices and can thus be addressed and eradicated with opposing action. We must work together as a society to fix these issues, and this begins by raising awareness of the factors which keep individuals in poverty, and the different ways that we are being taken advantage of for profit.
Through community support and initiative, we have the power to countereffect poverty's damage on our communities and to likewise build a future that is more prosperous and equitable.
By becoming involved in efforts to counteract poverty, you have the power to make a difference. Supporting non-profits like Saffron Trust Women's Foundation is a great way to start. We seek to provide dedicated assistance, advice, and resources to women experiencing cyclical poverty so that they and their families can build the capacity to thrive long-term.
