Thread by @susanlbridges

A NOTE ABOUT POOR PEOPLE (a thread)

I’ve seen waaaaay too many people online saying “well there’s a lot of poor people who’re just lazy and THOSE are the ones who don’t deserve help.”

Let me tell you something. Poor people work harder than you. Probably a lot harder.

Have you ever actually been poor? Everything takes a lot more time and effort when you are.

If you don’t have reliable transportation (and hey! You’re poor so you might not), just add a few hours to your commute for the bus or train, if you can afford it that is. Hours gone.

If you can’t make ends meet with a full time low paying job (and in Los Angeles you almost definitely can’t), that means you probably also need a second part time job. Of course it can’t conflict with your other job so good luck with that! But let’s say you do it.

You don’t have the money to eat out but you don’t have the time to make food at home (not to mention the time it takes to shop and get the ingredients). So you end up eating food that’s probably not that healthy, is quick to prepare, and doesn’t go bad, out of necessity.

So the pantry is probably full of rice and beans because they’re cheap and filling and because if you miss a day of work for some reason (you probably won’t get paid time off with a low paying job) that might mean you can’t afford food that week. That’s your cushion.

People are poor not only because of circumstance (most Americans are one paycheck away from catastrophe), but also because of untreated disability or lack of ongoing medical care for simple ailments (because how can someone with two jobs make time to go to the doctor?)

And let’s not forget the constant worry about being able to pay your bills and rent. You’re living in a constant state of high stress, and there’s nothing you can do about it. No time off, no vacations, no dinners out. A couple hours by yourself seems like an unbelievable luxury.

In your copious spare time (right), you can MAYBE find out if there are aid programs in your area or if you qualify for food stamps. In many places it’s not easy to figure this out, and even if you do it takes TIME. Time you probably don’t have.

Maybe there’s a food bank but you have no way to get there. Maybe there’s a place that gives out staples but it’s only once every two weeks and it’s on the other side of town and they’re only open while you’re working.

And what little time you DO have is finding things you can afford. Picking through expired food at the supermarket. Going to the dollar store for toiletries. Adding totals in your head. Maybe going to several places trying to get the best value. More time. Time you don’t have.

And to the people who say “just get a better job!” That assumes you have the resources to put together a resume, get it through the automated systems at almost all companies, have appropriate interview clothing AND be able to take time off to interview at other places.

I can tell you most low paying jobs don’t give you much time off, and certainly not on short notice. And if you don’t have reliable transportation an interview can eat up your ENTIRE day. Also people with low incomes are preyed upon by shady companies promising better work.

Even I was sucked into one of them. It was a group interview about selling some kind of branded crap to other companies. I was so angry because I lost out on time I could have been earning money because I thought it was a real job. I lost a DAY. It was like a gut punch.

And having hope can be a double edged sword when you’re poor. It can cost you money and time. So much time. Everything you choose to do when poor has a very high cost. It wears on you constantly.

And all the little things you took for granted before are gone. You can’t pick shampoo or soap you like, it has to be cheap. You can’t maintain your hair color like you did before. If you can’t afford to cover gray hair you could end up being discriminated against due to age.

You don’t feel like yourself. You don’t look how you want to look or smell like you want to smell. It’s an erosion of yourself on top of the insult of just trying to survive and maintain some level of human dignity.

I can tell you when we were poor I was never more exhausted. It was a constant struggle looking for work and doing math and desperately trying to fit way too much work into each day. A “lazy” poor person is one that’s probably dead due to starvation or homelessness.

“Lazy” = they couldn’t keep this grind up for years on end. I was lucky. I was only in it for a couple of years. Some people spend their whole LIVES that way. And some people don’t. Some end up dead.

Lack of medical care, a lifetime of poor food choices outside their control, but what choice did they have? They couldn’t think about their future past each DAY. But you know, that’s lazy, right?

But maybe that’s okay with some people, because well, they’re not a drain on the system giving tax breaks to billionaires, right?

I think maybe people deserve more. A lot more. Because poor people do work hard. Or they’re old and they DID WORK HARD.

They’re not lazy. /END

Gosh y’all I don’t have a soundcloud but if you like podcasts go over to pendantaudio.com and check out some of the free shows we make!

They’re on Apple Podcasts and all the places you normally find podcasts. You can get more updates on stuff we make @pendantweb