Understanding American Poverty
There might not be anything more confusing than understanding how in the richest country on earth, extreme poverty can exist. How one person or even a family of four could survive on virtually nothing.
Ask yourself, could you survive on $2.00 a day?
Reading $2.00 A Day by Kathryn Edin and H. Luke Shaefer, really challenged me to understand social welfare and social institutions that are built to serve the poor. But it also helped me understand how poverty exists in the first place. Here I will go over significant notes that highlight the necessary paradigm shifts our country needs to have in order to find solutions to serve our most vulnerable populations.
Looking beyond statistics, these researchers followed families in field sites across the country: Chicago, the Mississippi Delta, Cleveland, and the Appalachian region- Johnson City, Tennessee.
Some major patterns I found within the book are the American exceptionalist value of self-work and self-drive. The idea that somehow the poor do not want to work and want free handouts. This could not be further from the truth. To receive government benefits, many have to stand in long lines or travel long distances using public transportation that eats up any time they could use to work, go to interviews, or spend time with their children. Most people in poverty want nothing more than a job. Having a job provides you with stability, allows you to have a distraction from whatever hard circumstance you are going through in your personal life, and provides you with purpose. The issue is finding and keeping one.
So, who killed welfare in America, and started these harmful narratives around the poor? You could pretty much link the major shift to President Reagan. While campaigning for his presidency, he found a talking point that seemed to resonate with Americans everywhere: The welfare system needs reforming. During Reagan’s era, the system was built around Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), a cash assistance program authorized during the Great Depression. It offered cash to those who could prove their economic need and had few conditions. There was no time limit, and you did not have to prove if you had a job or were unable to work.
As years went on, caseloads grew and so did the criticism. Was this program rewarding indolence? Did it condone non-marital childbearing, seeing as how it supported single mothers? The script flipped once Reagan took the stage— in 1976 to be exact. “Welfare queen— she has used 80 names, 30 addresses, 15 telephone numbers to collect food stamps, Social Security, veterans benefits for four nonexistent, deceased veteran husbands, as well as welfare. Her tax-free cash income alone has been running $15,000 a year.” Of course, we can’t forget the racial stereotype born out of this speech— for some reason, Reagan made his fictional character Black. And I say fictional, because although his story is loosely based off of a real woman from Chicago who was investigated for murder, fraud, and much more— she does not come close to representing the typical welfare system. The typical recipients of AFDC were white- Black Americans never accounted for the majority during his time. But the damage was done. How we have viewed social safety nets in this country has never been the same.
Let’s go back to low wage labor markets— why is it so hard for the poor to keep their jobs? You might start with the obvious: transportation that falls through and you can’t get to work on time, or public bus routes are unreliable and far. You can’t find childcare that works with your time schedule or better yet, you can’t afford it. Missing a shift to finally make it to a health appointment you kept putting off but was affecting your well-being. Yes, those are all factors as to why someone might lose their job. But I want to start at the top. It is no secret that the low-wage job market offers some of our most undesirable jobs, that without employees would put many sectors of our lives at a halt, even if we don’t notice them.
Low wage jobs need the poor just as badly as the poor need to work— employers, knowing that, take advantage in every way they can. Overworking, cutting hours, unsafe conditions, disrespectful or inhumane management, etc. Even the basic recognition of equality and dignity gets lost. Imagine having a boss who knew you by name when you walked in the door, and who asked you how your weekend was, or how your children were doing in school? Imagine if you had the relationship, and your employer knew how good of a worker you were, and you had to miss a shift or come in late? What if instead of immediate termination, your employer was more compassionate because they knew your circumstances and your work ethic? In the low-wage labor market—that basic relationship of care just does not exist, and for many, it costs them their jobs.
It should be without saying that the low wage labor market is heavily undesirable in part because there is no respectable wage being given. A livable wage. With today’s low wages, a family might be able to cover their rent (with assistance), groceries, and a phone bill. Emphasis on the word might. But giving someone a livable wage allows them to have flexibility in their spending, buying and saving. But most importantly— when someone does not have to worry about how they are going to make ends meet when they're on the job, they are fully present and able to perform at their highest levels. They don’t break things, or make as many mistakes, and might not be in a somber mood or less likely to experience toxic stress. It seems like a win-win for every party involved.
Our assumptions— yes, yours and mine— need to change drastically about the poor. Those who have to find ways to survive, each and every day, some with children, disabilities, or health issues— they are some of the most persistent and creative thinkers, often making ends meet out of nothing. If anyone represents the American values we are taught— entrepreneurial qualities and innovation— we need to look no further than those who’ve we purposefully (or unconsciously) let fall between the cracks.
Within poverty, the conversations of money and jobs exist, but so does housing. To learn more about housing in America, I implore you to read Evicted by Matthew Desmond, or my piece “There Could Be Children Here”.
Private charity is often seen as “the little engine that could”, by admirably pulling in billions of dollars of aid to the poor each year— however, there is a trend of private charity’s availability, that seems to only exist within major or bigger cities, even though many of the trends show that poverty is growing outside cities, rather than within them.
“Furthermore, to be without cash in America is to be cut off from society, disconnected from the resources that could help you get out of those desperate straits and move ahead. As an expert on global poverty put it, the rise of the visually cashless poor in the United States, implies “a severe form of poverty in both a practical and intangible sense.”
When poverty exists, so can a shadow economy, which in many cases can threaten the formal one.
So what do we do now? I’m glad you asked. While it is true, that many jobs are threatened to be automated— many Americans, not just the poor, will soon be out of work. But that does not change the fact and the right that anyone able and willing is deserving of a job. And guess what? We as a nation have so much work to do, that we have the ability to create so many jobs.
According to the book, the authors write: “The National Park Service and state and local park districts are underfunded; this limits hours and upkeep. Safe, stimulating daycare centers— the kind of environments our toddlers and preschoolers require to thrive— are too few. We need many more after school programs for school-aged children. The nation’s infrastructure is out of date and crumbling from coast to coast. There are too few tutoring programs. There is too little elder care. Our vital institutions— such as libraries and pools need more people and funding, we need care for the addicted. Litter covers our roads and public areas— there is so much work to be done.”
Lastly, we need a cash cushion. Our country asks a lot of us— to work, sometimes 40 hours a week or more, pay taxes, and in return….shouldn’t our country take care of us? Especially to those who keep systems running smoothly? Life is hard for all of us, and for some harder than others. It is likely that someone might experience a period of homelessness or hunger— but we should be able to catch them when they fall. That’s how we keep people out of long term cycles of poverty.
Give this book a read!