John Scalzi: Being Poor (2005)

One of the reasons I was so impressed by this piece was that the author didn't mention any sort of identity, other than just being poor. Anyone who is poor, who has been poor, can identity with some or all of what was written here.

Perspective is always important when considering any subject. The subject of "white privilege" when it comes to the debate over poverty and power is often misguided, just like any blanket judgements made based on race. The fact that the oligarchs who have ruled the world for centuries are virtually all white means little to nothing to the millions of poor white people that have, in many cases, been destitute for generations.

A good friend of mine, who happens to be white, was born in a very bad neighborhood in Queens, New York to two poor, white parents. He went to school in one of the worst schools in New York. His father pumped gas and his mother was unemployed, spending her time with him and his two siblings. Both of his parents came from a poor family, neither of them had attended college. When he was 14, his mother died of a treatable disease because they couldn't afford health insurance. After that, he took care of his sister and brother after he got home from his afterschool job. When he was 23 his father was shot and killed during a robbery at the gas station. 50 years old now, no education, he scrapes out a living working at a gas station himself, barely able to afford the rent on his rented, basement room.

Poverty doesn't discriminate. Many if not most Americans in 2017 are in or near poverty themselves, with no savings, one crisis away from homelessness or bankruptcy. Those trying to make it a racial issue are distracting from the very real problem we face.

Barring a few instances, feeling of being poor is similar in a developed economy vs a developing one. I'm experiencing this in a South Asian country-

Being poor is falling in a debt-trap no matter how financially disciplined you are.

Being poor is calculating your income & expenditures everyday and dreaming you would break even in the next month for sure.

Being poor is trying to avoid the worst days your loved ones have seen.

Being poor is going to work even if you feel sick.

Being poor is not knowing why you are so poor.

The laws don't have to be unjust for the enforcement to be biased and discriminatory. Even when the enforcement is unbiased, and that's a pretty big if, the consequences aren't nearly the same for the poor as they are for the rich.

I've known people in third world countries who've been kicked off their land by the government, been forced to demolish their own homes--by hand!--on the way out, and were barred by law from ever stepping foot on said land again. All because developers wanted the land more and could make...millions for everyone. When that happens, you lose everything, your life is reset to be _at bottom_, and every day is a struggle to get off the bottom rung.

I've been with people so poor that when their friends had some beers they'd drink so much they'd pass out in a public park and be robbed of everything--by their friends--even their flip flops--and they'd wake up at noon the next day and wander barefoot home--whereever that is--with nothing.

I've seen people so poor they'd steal a bucket with a hole in it, they'd steal a dog trap to make a chicken coop. Forget about cars or bicycles...they'd steal a T-shirt or a lighter.

And they are not less moral or more moral, that's their life--screwed over in an endless cycle, locked into a futile struggle with the system that just does not let them make forward progress, always huffing it by foot or by bus because no car, and the bike has a flat.

From the bottom they look up; there are no rungs of the ladder to climb up, there are only superhuman leaps.

Sure, but I think most people would agree that the problem is not that the law is enforced for poor people, but that sometimes rich people can get away with breaking the law.