Undeserving Poor

 

PoBoy Views

By

Phil LaMancusa

Valentoons

Or

Undeserving Poor

        “I’m one of the undeserving poor, that’s what I am…I don’t need less than a deserving man, I need More. I don’t eat less hearty than him; and…. I drink a lot more.” Alfred Doolittle: My Fair Lady

        The undeserving poor. We’re not talking about the destitute, the ones that euphemistically are called ‘unhoused’ (1,314 this city’s homeless: nola.gov) and not necessarily the ‘food insecure’ (1 in 6 without food in Louisiana: Second Harvest); let’s talk about the ‘one paycheck away from being homeless poor. The Undeserving Poor.

        They’re a plain fact of life as we know and live it. Those poor are generally looked upon as unmotivated, unintelligent, and lazy; as we all know--(“it’s their own fault“)--they’ll be perpetually stuck in their circumstances. The view that most hold is that poor people are poor due to poor decisions, bad luck or are ‘educationally underserved’ (not smart) they are seen to have loose morals, subject to substance abuse and are incapable of critical thinking, some may have been sexually compromised. They’re welcome to ‘their lot in life’.      

        This is somewhat true and somewhat unfair. The Undeserving Poor are actually the grease that turns the wheels of industry/economy. They’re the ones that take the jobs no one else wants or is deluded into thinking that they’re above taking; the undeserving poor don’t get that choice (their lot in life). Objectively, we cannot understand why they seem disenfranchised, this being America and all. 

         I used to say that poverty ran in my family, sort of passed down from generation to generation; my grandparents, like many others of Americans, came through Ellis Island; trading European poverty for American poverty; being assured that if they pulled themselves up by their bootstraps that they could hook into the American Dream. No one noticed that they came without boots.

        Three generations later, that dream still is beyond reach. Blame it on the economy that always seems to stay one step ahead of those of us still pulling up our bootstraps. The epitome of the Capitalistic Successful Business Model that some Americans aspire to and few seldom reach is one that generally many Americans either live and work within, or pay as little attention to as they can. The dream of surviving without effort; being a successful business owner; wielding financial power or, the Great American Dream: becoming fat-cat rich.

        Fact: people in business mostly pay attention to their bottom line and rightly so; but, mostly at the expense of the people that work for them. Survival is the side effect of the American Dream fantasy drug. In twenty (mostly southern states) minimum wage is still $7.25 an hour (citizenscount.org) that’s about $15,000.00 a year before taxes. This is whether you’re single or supporting a spouse, parent and/or children; that’s $1,166.42 a month on a 37.5 hour work week (ca.talent.com). Servers in restaurants (waiters) get paid $2.13 per (paycor.com) and rely upon tips to supplement income.

        Hourly employees sometimes get benefits if they work over 35 hours a week (considered ‘full time’); many companies don’t/won’t schedule them more than 30. Many service employees are sent home when it’s slow and overworked when it’s busier (Hand To Mouth: Linda Tirado). Many, many have more than one job to juggle and two income families are common. Child care costs are crippling.   Companies like Walmart and McDonalds pay so little that their employees qualify for food stamps (Washingtonpost.com).

        But not me. I’m what you’d call The Working Poor. My computer may be running windows 7; my car over 20 years old; my television not cable; my cell phone outdated and my wife and I are both employed well past retirement age. We are running a gamut of three jobs each; should one income get compromised, if something happened to one of us---one simple twist of fate---it would make us TWO paychecks from homelessness. But, we’re making it (for now). We’ve the luxury of being optimistic (for now).

        We took on the responsibility of home ownership two years ago which means that we will be paying a mortgage when we’re centenarians. We pay taxes; water, electric, gas, garbage/recycling and phone bills; groceries, car maintenance; veterinarian costs; and a bank loan keeps us busy with bank accounts, credit cards and out of pocket expenses.

        We don’t smoke, drink moderately, eat mostly vegetarian and limit our drug use to aspirin, vitamins and whatever our doctors recommend for health maintenance. We don’t need less than the fat cats that find ways not to pay taxes; we need just as much and we need the dignity that goes along with it.

        We all do. The guy that gets up to work on the garbage truck; the man that cuts grass on the side to make ends meet; the single mother working the take out window of Burger King; the waitress that’s paying off student loans and the immigrant that’s picking your grapes for Whole Foods and living in a trailer.

        That guy on the corner with a sign that begs for money is a citizen of this country like you and I; the old man in the walker may have fought in one of our wars; the woman buying discount groceries to feed her grandkids may not have had a pension where she worked. The inspired student and the punk on the street are products of the American Dream.

        This Valentine’s Day, look on your life and the lives around you with love, empathy and compassion; pass out smiles like they’re Monopoly money; make life easier for somebody; show kindness, patience, understanding. It doesn’t get any better than this; let’s take it easy on each other.