Being Poor
This is actually a posting I wrote in response to someone in college (claiming that he was "poor") who stated: "Buying healthy food at a grocery store is a lot cheaper than eating at McDonalds. You can get about 10 apples for the price of a Big Mac Meal. They're just too stupid to know what to buy.."
There was a period of time in my life where I was dirt poor, and I couldn't afford to get to a regular grocery store, and this was while living in a big city. People like me relied on local grocery stores, which rip you off like you wouldn't believe. An example: milk at that time was one buck for a small carton (don't know the prices now), but when it came time to pay for it, my 99 cent milk suddenly went up to $1.45, because of tax. I'm sorry, but no city in this country charges a 46 percent tax on any item, yet when I brought it up to the attention of the person running the store, I was thrown out of the store and banned from ever coming back, as if I was some homeless guy that was asking for spare change.
People take advantage of the poor in ways you can't even possibly imagine. I remember at one time that I relied on fast food to survive because that was all I could afford (you start really paying attention to 99 cent deals), and at that time, I was probably gaining weight as well because I couldn't afford to eat right.
And this is coming from a very educated individual who fell on hard times, so it wasn't like I was some mentally incapacitated individual (that would happen much later, I guess), but I realized back then I had very few options available to me. Back then, you couldn't even cash a check without huge surge charges put on it because you couldn't afford to maintain a bank account, and the few times I went into a bank, I felt like they were looking for any reason to arrest me (I looked homeless during this time). I was living in a bug-infested flop house, and let's just say that when you're poor, you don't see a way out of it.
To be honest, my way out of this came through the assistance of others. Not welfare, not general assistance of any nature, but just making friends that couldn't believe how I was living and helped me figure out how to get out from under such a life.
So few people get that opportunity. That whole "you can solve your own problems" thing is such a farce and is so insulting to those who are suffering on a daily basis. Comparing someone in college who thinks he's poor to someone on the streets who is trying so hard to find a job that does MORE than keep that person on the streets is insulting to everyone that has ever been there before.
I'm in college now (pursuing my PhD), and let's just say that the life of a college student is FAR different than the life of someone who finds himself living on the streets, for whatever reason. And I am so sick and tired of the "well, you got off the streets, so that proves that it can be done, so let's ignore the poor because they're just lazy" responses from people who have never been there and have zero clue whatsoever.
Stumble It!
This is actually a posting I wrote in response to someone in college (claiming that he was "poor") who stated: "Buying healthy food at a grocery store is a lot cheaper than eating at McDonalds. You can get about 10 apples for the price of a Big Mac Meal. They're just too stupid to know what to buy.."
There was a period of time in my life where I was dirt poor, and I couldn't afford to get to a regular grocery store, and this was while living in a big city. People like me relied on local grocery stores, which rip you off like you wouldn't believe. An example: milk at that time was one buck for a small carton (don't know the prices now), but when it came time to pay for it, my 99 cent milk suddenly went up to $1.45, because of tax. I'm sorry, but no city in this country charges a 46 percent tax on any item, yet when I brought it up to the attention of the person running the store, I was thrown out of the store and banned from ever coming back, as if I was some homeless guy that was asking for spare change.
People take advantage of the poor in ways you can't even possibly imagine. I remember at one time that I relied on fast food to survive because that was all I could afford (you start really paying attention to 99 cent deals), and at that time, I was probably gaining weight as well because I couldn't afford to eat right.
And this is coming from a very educated individual who fell on hard times, so it wasn't like I was some mentally incapacitated individual (that would happen much later, I guess), but I realized back then I had very few options available to me. Back then, you couldn't even cash a check without huge surge charges put on it because you couldn't afford to maintain a bank account, and the few times I went into a bank, I felt like they were looking for any reason to arrest me (I looked homeless during this time). I was living in a bug-infested flop house, and let's just say that when you're poor, you don't see a way out of it.
To be honest, my way out of this came through the assistance of others. Not welfare, not general assistance of any nature, but just making friends that couldn't believe how I was living and helped me figure out how to get out from under such a life.
So few people get that opportunity. That whole "you can solve your own problems" thing is such a farce and is so insulting to those who are suffering on a daily basis. Comparing someone in college who thinks he's poor to someone on the streets who is trying so hard to find a job that does MORE than keep that person on the streets is insulting to everyone that has ever been there before.
I'm in college now (pursuing my PhD), and let's just say that the life of a college student is FAR different than the life of someone who finds himself living on the streets, for whatever reason. And I am so sick and tired of the "well, you got off the streets, so that proves that it can be done, so let's ignore the poor because they're just lazy" responses from people who have never been there and have zero clue whatsoever.
Stumble It!
posted by Duane @ 7:50 AM
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