Poverty is Not Always What it Seems--Part One

Disclaimer: I am not an expert. In anything. Well, except in making baklava. Other than that, I do not claim to be expert on anything. However, I can give you a quick "snap shot" of how I feel on certain subjects. If you want the full explanation of everything I believe about a subject, take me out for coffee. I'll even let you pay.

Warning: You are allowed to disagree with me. However, I respect myself too much to allow you to be a jerk face to me or other people. So, jerk faced comments will be deleted. 

When I say the word "poor" I'm sure an image is conjured in your brain. What is she wearing? How does he act? What is her ethnicity? How do you feel about him? How old is this person?


Do you notice that you are thinking about a person? 

The poor among us (because they are among us and not apart from us) are people. They are living, breathing people who as George Bailey from It's a Wonderful Life put it, "... do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community." 

One of the things I like best about the story of George Bailey is that he understood what it meant to be poor, used his influence and privilege to change the culture of poverty in his town and met people where they are at. In the end, he learned that poverty has many faces...but there is always hope where there is love. 

Mr. Potter was in the top 1% in Beford Falls. If Mr. Potter lived between 1980 and 2005, he would likely be in the top 1% of the United States. He would've been the recipient (along with others in the top 1%) of 80% of all new income generated during this time. See more.

As Bill Maher put it (not very tactfully so I'll improve it), the aforementioned statistic is like...

100 people go to a party. 
100 slices of pizza are ordered. 
The first guy to the pizza buffet takes 80 pieces. 
99 people then have to figure out how to share 20 pieces of pizza. 

Now, before you read the above scenario and say, "Now, Jaimie, wait a minute. Life is not a party and people don't just 'take' income like pizza. They work for it! Poor people are just lazy and irresponsible!" 

I'm wondering if you should think more about the poor people you know. Think about putting on their shoes and walking in them for a moment. And read this AMAZING article. It is the best explanation I've ever read of how poverty isn't just determined by the money you have or do not have. There is a culture that accompanies poverty. An excerpt: 

Nobody gives enough thought to depression. You have to understand that we know that we will never not feel tired. We will never feel hopeful. We will never get a vacation. Ever. We know that the very act of being poor guarantees that we will never not be poor. It doesn't give us much reason to improve ourselves. We don't apply for jobs because we know we can't afford to look nice enough to hold them. I would make a super legal secretary, but I've been turned down more than once because I "don't fit the image of the firm," which is a nice way of saying "gtfo, pov."

If you've just read the article and still feel that all poor people are lazy and irresponsible, please raise your hand. Now slap yourself with that hand. 

"But Jaimie! The poor people I know...or occasionally observe...really are lazy and irresponsible!" you say. I would say that I know some really racist white people but I would not say that all white people are racist and should be treated as such. I know some truly whoreish  women but that does not mean that you can treat all women as whores (especially not me, cause that would not be good for your health.) 

I once heard an amazing sermon by someone I can't remember. However, God's truth through this man changed how I thought of lazy people. He surmised that lazy people aren't just those who do not work. Lazy people are those who do not do the hard things. Therefore, "workaholics" are often some of the laziest people you'll meet. They work to escape whatever it is they don't want to deal with (such as their marriage or their loneliness.) This leads me to think that there are lazy people who are rich and there are lazy people who are poor. That does not mean that all rich people are lazy. That does not mean all poor people are lazy. 

Here is another perspective worth examining from Rachel Held Evans: "What Dave Ramsey gets wrong about poverty."

This is not all of what I think about poverty, how I understand God's truth about the poor and needy, who poverty affects and how to fix it. More to come!