Hard Working Poor

Summary Linda Tirado, author of Hand to Mouth Living in Bootstrap America, tells her story of what it’s like to be working poor in America, as well as what poverty is truly like on many levels. With a thought-provoking voice, Tirado discusses her journey from lower class, to sometimes middle class, to poor, and everything in between. Throughout the read, Tirado goes on to reveal why poor people make the decisions they do in a very powerful way.

Go to Chicago, New York, Paris or Madrid, on every street corner you see a person less advantaged,

People living in poverty often feel powerless and isolated, it’s so hard to be poor and tens of millions americans deal with that every day.

With all of the media 's hatred of poor people, it must affect their self-confidence and how they view the American Dream. Through her experience, Jennifer Mayer has noticed that very problem. While working in the soup kitchen, she noticed that most of the people who came in lived in "survival mode" and only lived "day-to-day" with no real goals. They had no dreams of success because they believed it to be impossible (Mayer). One reason for this self-esteem issue is their lack of education. Since poor people rarely have a college education, they feel like they have no future. This can often cause them to give up on their dreams and resort to crime (Reef 225-226). Also, because poor people are below America 's social and economic system, they will often give up on their dreams.

Even though having the “poor class” is a necessary evil needed for society to function, most Americans, at some point in time, will experience what it is like to live in poverty or live below the poverty line. One main reason for having a high percentage of people living in poverty is because the U.S. policy makers have ignored the poor and have given tax breaks to those with a much higher income. Funding for welfare was slashed and extended unemployment benefits were ended. With little success with the economic reform the United States has been going through for the past five years, about 14.5 percent of Americans are still living under the poverty line.

Author Bryan Stevenson (2014) writes, “The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned”(p.18). According to the non-profit, Feeding America (2016), in 2015, 43.1 million, or 13.5%, of people in the United States were impoverished. Poverty is a vicious cycle, trapping people and families for generations. The inability to escape poverty is due in part to difficult class mobility in the U.S. but also because certain factors reinforce the idea and state of poverty. Bryan Stevenson’s bestseller Just Mercy, Lindsey Cook’s article “U.S. Education: Still Separate and Unequal”, Michelle Alexander’s excerpt “The Lockdown”, and Sarah Smarsh’s “Poor Teeth” all explore the idea of poverty and the systems that sustain it. While all four readings focus on poverty differently and explore it using different techniques, they all share similar big picture ideas about how poverty is fortified through systematic, societal, and psychological efforts.

And nearly half believe that ‘if poor people really want to work, they can always find a job’ A minority about 25 percent stated that ‘people are poor because they’re are lazy and have lower moral values than average’

In a study conducted by Oscar Lewis, he claims “the low-income population of San Juan and New York and found a widespread way of thinking that he called fatalism” (Macionis 2013:88). He determined people who are raised in poverty are more likely to have, “low self-esteem, limited aspirations, and a sense of powerlessness” (Macionis 2013:88). Some ethnicities, mainly the minority, are described as “oppositional culture” when they succeed or portray stereotyped white characteristics of prosperity in order to discourage advancement. People raised in poverty can find it hard to believe in a better life with education and success if they are only exposed to below average condition of living, education, income, and health care. Poverty is not only an issue of income, it also has negative effects that are detrimental to a person over time.

Imagine being taunted for having to wear potato-sack dresses because of poverty, or growing up in impoverishment American housing projects. Two of the most famous people had to go through those trails in their life, but made it out VERY successfully. Oprah was raised being taunted for having to wear potato-sack dresses because of her poverty. Oprah now has a television network called OWN. She is a talk-show host, a book club president, an actress, a producer, a magazine owner, a satellite radio station owner, a philanthropist, a lifestyle guru, and a single-handed president picker. The other is an African-American born into impoverished American housing projects, Jay-Z. He is now the current CEO of Roc Nation and his net worth is an estimated $450 million. Even though neither of these people hadn’t come from lovely backgrounds, they had various trials, and tribulations, but they made it through and became some of the most successful people in the world. Growing up in a rough environment can be extremely hard. It can either make or break a person. From home life, to schooling, to jail systems, and the streets being an easy backup. growing up in this environment can be huge deals in the success of young African Americans.

According to Elizabeth Kneebone, author of “Confronting Suburban Poverty in America”, the growth of suburban poverty is partly due to the dark economic situations that forced people beneath “the line” and by migration. She added that most low-wage jobs in America are in the suburbs, and that people mistakenly believe

Poverty, people are born into it. People can sink into its grasp, or people can escape. But it’s a hard journey. As for Kevin Powells mother growing up in the south she never saw money, for “at the age of eight in a field picking someone else’s cotton”. (p. 86) Being in poverty is based out financial needs, being poor is one thing. Poverty is just below that, for you barley have enough to get by and sometimes you are places in a setting that could risk health or safety.

Elizabeth McCumber April 24, 2015 Working poor paper Throughout both in-class discussions, and David Shipler’s “The Working Poor: Invisible in America” we learned being poor in America is anything but easy. Even with all of our government assistance programs such as Medicaid and Welfare, many family generation after generation seem to fall below the poverty line and create a life of struggle and long way out for their families. When Shipler is explaining different families and their lac of self control in saving the little money they do earn, it makes you question if the have the know how to get out of poverty, or even in some cases even want to due to their different spending habits than successful people, falling into credit traps, and buying the un-necessary.

All over the world many have gone through or are still going through the struggle of being in poverty. You don’t have to be homeless to be struggling, it could be just not have lights on in your home, past due rent, or maybe not having enough or anything at all to eat. Many have felt like just because they go through this that they will never be anything because they don’t have the resources to accomplish anything in life, and other people around you who doubt you can make you believe even more that you will never amount to anything in life. Christopher Wallace aka The Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie small’s song “Juicy”, released in 1994 from his Ready to Die album, selling over 607,000 copies is a great example of all of this. He tells this exact story through his song about how people used to doubt him and even goes on to tell about his life in the struggle and coming up from it.

Growing up Poor I did not realize until about the 5th grade, what being poor was all about. From kindergarten until then, kids didn’t really pay attention to what you wore to school, what type of home you lived in, or what your parents did for a living. What

Nevertheless, the poor most often remain poor. This creates a jaded population of impoverished citizens. This is not to say that people are happy being poor, but that when one is taught by popular culture that they deserve better they become a victim. Someone or something has caused them to be poor; therefore, it is ultimately not their fault. One effect of this victimization is that it can breed complacency. Through whatever means, some reason, I will get what's coming to me. I am owed. Instead of using what meager opportunities are out there some will simply wait for their piece of the pie. Another effect of this idea of being a victim is the homeless are different than the mere poor because they must have done it to themselves. As they are owed just as much as everyone else, they must have done something to cause them to be homeless. This helps to calm the fear that perhaps being in America does not guarantee success or even a decent shot at it.