The Crazy Rants of Samantha BurnsPoverty
Article in response to Nashvillefiles.com
Blake, at Nashvillefiles, recently asked if North Americans know what being poor is. He questions if we really know the same kind of poverty that exists in Africa: the famine-type poverty. He states that "the very fact that our nation's poorest people are able to stay fattened is a testament to this".
I pondered these questions for a while and the following is my reponse...
As I'm sure Blake knows, Africa isn't the only place in the the world with such poverty, having lived briefly in central Europe, I can attest to this; and the poverty in North America can be, and is, similarly horrific in places. Squalid make-shift shanties do exist here; it's not often publicised in the media, however. All it takes is for you to look towards the "bad side" of some towns, and you see junked-up druggies and prostitutes everywhere, and they ain't looking too pretty in anorexia-ville. They are just skin and bones.
As I mentioned in Blake's blog comments section, I believe that poverty in North America is at least partly a result of a lack of motivation, drug abuse, neglect of all sorts, and a reliance on government aids such as welfare.
Another part of the problem is in what the North American governments consider poverty. Many people work a minimum wage, full time job and they are considered to be impoverished. Other people do not work at all, but beg on the streets, and they are also considered impoverished. I think the better question would be, what does poverty mean to us?
There is a wide range in our classification system for which people can be considered poor. Poverty in North America can include street bums, people living in low-income housing, single mothers on minimum wage, families within a low income bracket, college and university students, and those who are institutionalised among others. Of course, this is not an absolute as not everyone qualifies as being poor if they are from one of the previously mentioned groups.
I don't know if our system of determining who is in poverty and who isn't works. What I do know is that many children in various communities go to school without having eaten in days. No, it's not going for weeks at a time like in Africa (that I know of), but I do know of instances where children go for almost a week without proper care and food.
Who do you think looks after little Johnny while mom's tricking and drugging it up on the street? Is it Johnny's fault that mom's a whore? No. Little Johnny is one of many children neglected in our society. Another question: who is trying to get anorexic, drugged up, and prostituting mommy some help? Very few people. These poor people, "Johnny" and "mommy", are only a couple of people out there who are literally in the famine category of poverty.
I'm not writing this as a judgement of society. I'm not blaming anyone for what is happening here. I'm not looking for solutions to this problem. I'm just responding to Blake's blog post.
Comments
Certainly there are many fewer people who can't find a job in the US than in Africa and we have various social programs, shelters, etc. that are supposed to help even the worst off have some standard of living. There are still people sleeping on the streets, for example, of any major city, but they could probably find a homeless shelter or something if they were sane normal people who fell on hard times. Of course there are plenty of people who are insane or drug addicts or have similar problems and in any case even if most of our poor are better off than people experiencing famine type poverty that still leaves a lot of room to have problems.
Posted by: Dave L | August 30, 2005 09:28 PM
Thoughtful post.
My take. Poverty is when one cannot take care of one's material needs. Note the use of the term needs - not wants.
I need to have heat in the freezing cold of winter, I need to have about 1500 calories a day, and I need to have an internet connection.
heh.
I do not need a car, books, lights or a phone. I do not need TV.
A lot of the people that we think of as impoverished in North America are such because they choose to be. They choose Cable TV over things that they Need.
I believe that a large portion of real happiness is realizing the difference between what we want and what we need.
Posted by: tsykoduk | August 30, 2005 09:52 PM
I can't even come close to African poverty.
American Poverty? I paid my dues in the 90s
Just got my Social Security Statement
I love that thing, I can look at it and
see the record of how I crawled out of a deep dark pit.
Years worked Your Taxed Social
Security Earnings
1991 12,034
1992 12,593
1993 5,673
1994 4,774
1995 8,125
1996 16,939
1997 28,556
After 1997 things got pretty good. ;-)
I refuse to allow anyone to throw my present
income level in my face and tell me I do
not understand Americans living below the poverty level. Been there, done that, have the teeshirt.
Africa is a whole different ballgame, those people have some kind of guts to keep on going, I have almost as much respect for them as I have pity for their misery. Given a chance there is not telling what they could accomplish.
Posted by: Dan Kauffman | August 30, 2005 11:18 PM
" ... and a reliance on government aids such as welfare."
I am not sure what your evidence for this is, but I'd sure like to see it -- it flies in the face of several decades of research showing otherwise. (i.e. http://chris.quietlife.net/images/poverty_rate.png, taken from http://www.census.gov/hhes/poverty/histpov/hstpov13.html)
I recommend reading this book: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0226901319/
Posted by: Chris Wage | August 31, 2005 05:34 AM
Also, drug-addicted whores are very rarely anorexic. They may be thin, but anorexia is a disease of the affluent.
Posted by: brittney | August 31, 2005 05:40 AM
There are desperate poor in the US and that's not counting drug addicts. There are rural areas in the US where conditions would be considered similar to the underdeveloped areas of the world, in Appalachia, for ex.
There are also people whose conditions might be better than the famine-struck areas of Africa, but who still have to deal with poor sanitation, poor hygiene, poor health care, limited education, and yes, limited job opportunities.
Even in urban areas, things are bad. There are illegal immigrants afraid to apply for any services lest they be deported. There are people who are living 20 to a room who work in sweatshops (we've had places like that busted here in NYC), usually Asians who indenture themselves to get here, work 15 hours under deplorable conditions, and have nothing.
There are also the working poor, people with incomes that barely pay for roofs over their heads, minimal food and clothing who have no health insurance because they're hourly wage earners.
And of course, there are the homeless.
After a point, it's irrelevant to discuss how poor are they as if it was a contest. There is plenty of poverty out there and in a nation with the standard of living we have in the US, that so many people aren't close to attaining it saddens me.
Posted by: Shelly | August 31, 2005 07:38 AM
A very thoughful post. In my part of the world the measures of "poverty" have become ludicrous - children are in poverty if they do not have a TV, Personal Stereo and a number of items once considered "luxury" goods. There are people in poverty here in the UK, but, like those in North America, many have made lifestyle choices which strip them of their assets faster than they can acquire them. But you also have to see Africa in its brutal reality to actually understand that most Africans would not understand our thinking of them as "poor". For the rural African this is an irrelevant term if he (or she) has sufficient meat to eat, goats or cows to milk and a supply of water and some ground from which they can grow and harvest crops from which to subsist. Only in our consumer society and our macro-economic vision of the world is poverty linked to possessions and "wants" rather than "needs".
Perhaps Africa does have something to teach us - but probably from its "poor" and not from its "leaders".
Posted by: The Gray Monk | August 31, 2005 09:09 AM