Being Poor is Hard Work

A Fact of Life for Many, A Foreshadowing for Others

Contrary to the popular opinion that “poor people are lazy”, the truth is that every aspect of life becomes much harder when you are poor. And the learning curve if you suddenly become poor is staggering.

It is hard enough for those who understand the system. For the newly poor, life is fraught with peril. There are so many things where the solution was once money, and now it is waiting in line, or filling out forms, or figuring out how to do it yourself. Sometimes the solution is to just do without. For the poor, a great deal of time is spent just fulfilling basic needs that could be obtained easily with money, or dealing with the effects of needs that can’t be met at all, such as medical care often enough.

For the moneyed, getting food is as easy as deciding what to get and getting it. Cooking is an option, and ingredients are no problem. The very people who have the greatest access to medicine also have the pick of healthy food choices. For the poor, at a certain point, getting food requires standing in long lines for assistance, which is often inadequate. With or without food stamps there may be few healthy food choices in the neighborhood. To get healthy food if you are not lucky enough to have a garden plot or live near a community garden, it may be necessary to go a long distance, possibly without a vehicle, and then get the provisions home. This takes a lot of effort, and that is before the stove gets fired up.

Then there is the question of transportation. Car ownership, even an old beater, is expensive and wrought with peril. If you are not a mechanic and have no mechanics in your immediate circle, there is always a chance that things can go wrong. Buying car insurance can cut into money for food or heating, and fuel prices are spiraling upwards.

It may be impossible to get the car registered in a timely fashion, which drives up the cost in the end. In that case it is necessary to take evasive action every time you spot a cop on the road. And when you finally get caught the fees can exceed the value of the vehicle, or make it so you can eat nothing but peanut butter for long while.

Without a car, in many areas, getting anywhere takes a lot of time, and some money unless you walk. This can be mitigated by living in a place with good public transportation, especially if there is a program for a low-cost monthly pass.

Money management presents a problem. At a certain point, having any kind of bank account becomes a liability. The few bills that must be paid by mail involve a trip to the store for a money order, one of the most insecure and difficult ways of paying. God help you if it gets lost in the mail…

If you get sick or injured enough to absolutely require medical attention there is always the emergency room. You will be hounded for an outrageous amount of money for years afterwards, and may get substandard treatment, but will likely survive. For lesser ills, you can try to get an over the counter remedy or just tough it out. And if is a dental problem, just forget it. Teeth are not considered part of a poor person’s body.

These are just a few examples of situations where poverty creates the need for massive amounts of work just to survive. It is not laziness that keeps the poor impoverished, but rather a system that is completely stacked in favor of maintaining the status quo. There is the ever present chance of stepping on some rich person’s “property rights” and there by incurring some mountainous expense at law.

For instance, if you park on private property and get towed, the initial fee may be hundreds of dollars and increase by fifty or more dollars (a week’s groceries) each day. The towing yards are full of cars that could not be retrieved by their owners. These vehicles may have been keeping their former owners employed. And the private towing company gets to KEEP this unconscionable profit.

And, if there are any infractions of government codes, such as rolling a stop sign, a choice must be made whether to lose the vehicle, risk jail, or just stop eating for a month. A moneyed person would just pay the fine and drive on.

In many places there are laws about sitting or standing on the street without obviously being in the process of buying something. Even going to the bathroom when not at home costs money, to become a “customer” and therefore eligible to use the facilities. The list just goes on and on. It is safer, when poor, to never leave your house. But then you will just get evicted and join the ranks of the homeless.

There are whole industries that prey on the poor, raising the prices that they are likely to pay for everything from milk to tires. The worst are the predatory lenders offering quick cash at fees that are beyond usury.

Yes, being poor is very hard work and it will likely get much harder in the absence of federal programs as the ranks of the former middle class start to press in on available services while local governments struggle to keep up. At the same time the tax revenues that used to be paid into the system by the former middle class are drying up as the ranks of the very poor swell. The mean streets are about to get a lot meaner.