I know what it's like to be poor. I've been there. I'm not going to go into detail in this particular blog post, but suffice it to say that being poor was a miserable thing for us - especially when we had bills to pay and could't afford to do so and had to make the decisions as to either pay a past-due utility bill or to buy food for our family. Usually, the compromise was that we would pay less for groceries and end up with foods that were adequate to fill our bellies but not necessarily the best nutritionally - for instance: we would load up on bread from the bakery thrift store. Our family subsisted on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
Now, I don't know what has happened in the past 20-30 years (or if maybe it's been going on a lot longer and I have just noticed it more in recent years) but there are some trends that just can't go unnoticed. Poor people are now enjoying frivolous indulgences! I'm not talking about people on food stamps going in and buying steak and ice cream. To me, that's no big deal... I mean, when you get food stamps you are allotted a certain dollar amount of food and you buy what you can afford. If you can afford ice cream, well so be it! When your food stamp allotment is gone, it's gone and you have to scrimp until you get your next month's allotment. They have EBT cards now and from what I understand you can buy a lot more with your EBT than what you used to. I'm not going to get into what you can and cannot buy with your EBT card. No, what I am going to talk a little bit about is maybe the definition of being poor (or not being poor).
I remember hearing someone complain about being categorically needy or living in poverty level - an arbitrary statistic that the government throws out there that determines whether you are poor or not. Like I said, it's an arbitrary number. I can't determine that current dollar amount off the top of my head, but it seems to me that for most of my life we have always been at or below that number and for the most part I haven't thought much about it. To me, being poor meant that you couldn't afford all the basic necessities of life, not yet luxuries. So without further ado, I'm just gonna launch right into this and make my point.
I see these young "kids" now that are supposedly poor. Now, I don't know if they are living with their parents, leeching off their parents while living in an apartment, using their student loans/grants or getting welfare... it doesn't matter. What matters is that they claim they are poor. They are always looking for some kind of handout or help whether it be from the government, parents, church or whatever charity will provide for their basic needs.
There is a great irony though. These young people are sporting tattoos that would shame a seasoned sailor and enough piercings to set off metal detectors at the courthouse where they go to mitigate their traffic violations. Some of them come walking into public places (like a grocery store) toting a purebred dog... because they just can't leave the pup at home or afford to pay a sitter or kennel. Others go for the exotic pets because jeez... you just can't live without having some kind of animal in your apartment! Then there's the dope... the dope, the booze and the cigarettes. I'm not a smoker, but I was shocked the last time I saw the price of a pack of cigarettes - it's about 6 bucks... or more! I don't even know how much it costs for weed and booze and beer and Starbucks coffee... and pet food! And lest we forget the necessary iTunes cards and the apps that they load onto their iPhones so they can have something to do while they are illegally camping in a park at an Occupy protest or some other fruitless annoyance to the productive members of society.
My question is this: Where do they get the money for all this crap? I'm pretty sure it doesn't come from a full-time job because NOBODY would hire a person that looks like a freak and hasn't bathed recently or shaved in months and ignores neat grooming and clothing standards of a 21st century civilization. Then they have the gumption to go down and protest (which is more like a giant party) against the hard-working and prosperous members of society... about the greed and lavish lifestyles of Corporate America while these poor humble peasants are languishing in their poverty... these cohabiting, irresponsible "students" then have the nerve to beg for free contraceptives.
Okay... so maybe I am making an example out of the dregs of our society but still, there are a lot of kids and young adults now who seem to have enough money to pay for electronic gadgets, new vehicles, trips to Hawaii or Europe or thereabouts, DVDs and video games, pets, cute shoes and new wardrobes - but then don't seem to have enough to pay the utility bills or put food on the table.
Don't get me wrong. I think it's great to explore the world and enjoy some of the finer things in life... when you've saved up and can truly afford to do so.
Maybe it's just me but it appears that "being poor" is much more fun now than it was when I was poor.
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