My Hometown Of Twin Falls

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.

In “Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person” by Gina Crosley-Corcoran. We learn about the authors struggle growing up poor. Crosley says that she was so poor growing up, it’s “the type of poor that people don’t want to believe still exists in the country.” Crosley grew up in northern-Illinois and she was truly impoverished growing up. At 12, Crosley was making cup noodles in a coffee maker with water she fetched from public bathrooms. She lived in a camper that had no running water or heat.

Growing up poor in the Bronx and living with my mother and two siblings, I could relate to the “poverty” part of the reading On the Meaning of Plumbing and Poverty by Melanie Scheller. Scheller grew up in poverty with her mother and her siblings in rural North Carolina in the 1960s. They lived off the land in less than stellar conditions and at times in dilapidated housing which was all that her mother was able to afford.

During the “Baby Boomer” era, following WWII, America underwent one of the largest demographic shifts and population growths in history. Huge amounts of home construction on the outskirts of America’s largest cities, known as “levittowns” became the new staple of the American dream, with the houses sporting two car garages, and white picket fences. These low density, predominantly middle class residential districts, were America’s first true suburbs. These suburbs were constructed mainly in response to the new postwar consumerism that enveloped the parents of the baby boomers. With the new economy, affordable housing, and most families becoming single income dependent, families grew bigger and bigger. The 1947 passing of the bill that lead to the interstate highway system, only added fuel to the fire of suburbanization. With the new interstate highway system, more affordable and fuel efficient automobiles, and the government aiding in the financing of new suburban homes, the choice seemed elementary. All of these factors pushing to the suburban movement, only spurred the baby boomers on, and between 1940-50, there was an 835% percent increase in living births with nearly 4 million children being born every year. In 1940, 19.5% of the United States population lived in what would be considered to be suburban areas outside of large metropolitan areas, however, by 1960; the number was pushing nearly 40%. The postwar suburbanization of America during the baby boomer

To some, being poor is embarrassing and shameful, but to a select group of people; being poor is something they’re grateful to be. They embrace it and use it to their advantage to achieve better lives

During the 1960s baby boomers were dropping $20 billion every year in to the U.S. economy. In the 1950s and 1960s all the people in the U.S. caused the construction industry to grow as all new houses were being built.(AP Study Notes) With the economy making more money the G.I. Bill helped returning soldiers get a suburban house cheaper than they could get a house in the city. These houses were perfect for the young families and by 2000 half of America was living in the suburbs. Since the

The final chapter of Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, “Evaluation”, states about low income families being almost invisible to the mid to high income families. This observation is valid because walking around places, Walmart, Kmart, etc., a person cannot distinguish what class the person is in. Poorer families are also rarely portrayed on television or other forms of entertainment, unless the show is about people getting arrested, since most people only find higher class, comfortable people interesting.

Imagine living in a neighborhood with all of your friends, family, and a new strip mall that opened down the street. Your parents are concerned but you don’t see the problem. They know that a new strip mall means new shoppers. These new shoppers are going to want to move closer to that new strip mall, and once they do, everything changes. The more middle class people move in, the higher the property value, the higher the property value, the higher the rent and mortgages are. Eventually you have to move away from everybody into a neighborhood with worse schools and a poorer economy because your parents can’t afford to be there anymore. This type of story happens everyday to low income families, the process is called gentrification. Gentrification is not a good practice, since it moves groups of people out of their homes and neighborhoods.

Due to economic security, the baby boom, and the "American Dream" suburbs grew in the 1950's. Our economy was the largest in the world at the time and we were becoming a largely consumerism based country. We even had enough money that the government helped pay half the loans of American Veterans through the GI Bill of Rights. That security was sure, the government would not offer to pay back so much money if they thought it would be necessary for every person (Doc 1). Home ownership rates went up by over 10% the first 10 years after WW2 (Doc 4). This was caused by a great rush of babies being born also known as the baby boom. These many children needed space to live, and suddenly, suburbs are born! With the money needed families could take

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.

He worked every day from Monday to Friday. When I was younger, my dad worked in the oil field. Not an easy job, but I never heard him complain about how he wished he could stay at home and look after my sister and I instead of going to work every day. Instead he woke up early every morning and was often gone before I was even awake. When he came home from work he smelled like oil and often had dirty clothes. I used to love giving my dad a hug and just soaking in his scent. His scent reminded me that I was safe and that he would always take care of me. Just like my mother, my father does not believe in gender inequality. He does not believe that it is harder to be a man or that it is harder to be a woman. He believes that each gender has different struggles. Being a stay-at-home mom is a hard job. So is going to work for five days of the

Housing was a necessity many Americans wanted, “During the 1950s, for example, suburbs grew at a rate ten times faster than that of central cities, while the nation’s suburban population jumped from 35.1 to 75.6 million between 1950 and 1970” (Avila 4). The main problem

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 mattered was how nice you were, that you shared your toys, and took turns on the playground.

her all, by that I mean, she worked two jobs to make sure her children ate properly and

My dad has always had to make choices and sacrifices for my own benefit. For the first four years of my life my family couldn’t afford a car. Since both my parents worked my dad had to walk me to my babysitter before work every day (no matter how hot or cold the weather