“Do you happen to have spare change? Anything helps.”
You’ve spent the afternoon in town with your friend, strolling up and down the streets to pass time. As you’re walking past the local coffee shop, laughing at a 2016 election joke you read on twitter, your laughing is put on pause when you hear a man ask you for spare change.He has bags under his eyes that holds years of weight, and his clothes are covered in dirt. His shoes are tattered and his hair is mangled and unkempt. Your friend eyes your warily as you dig into the pocket of your jeans and pull out a crumpled five-dollar bill, handing it to the man with a cautious smile.
“God bless your soul, thank you.”
And with that, your friend pulls you away from him and down the sidewalk.
“Are you out of your mind? You know he’s going to use that for his coke stash!”
A part of you wants to argue that no, you actually don’t know what he’s going to use those five dollars for, nor do you care, because it’s obvious that he needs it more than you do. The other part of you wants to just shrug it off and forget about it, because it’s not worth arguing over. The disregard overpowers the morality once again. You represent one part of the war on poverty. Your friend represents the U.S. government and the high end politicians who cover their ears at the voices of the struggling. The man on the street represents the 46.7 million people living in poverty in 2014 alone.
Despite all of the times we look in the mirror and convince ourselves that we’re good people, and convince ourselves that we do what we can to help ‘cure’ poverty every time we hand a five dollar bill to an impoverished person on the street, it’s time that we officially wake up. No need for feeling guilty though, because we weren’t alone in our sugar-coated sessions of self reassurance (I’m looking at you, U.S. government). Hey, why so much shade towards the government? They’re trying their best. Okay fine, there has been a slight decrease (.5%) in the percent of people living in poverty since 2012, but needless to say that still leaves 46.7 million people living in poverty as of 2014. (Who knows what the number is now). Even though 2014 seemed to be a ‘year towards recovery’, Congress wasted no time (less than a month into 2014) cutting nine billion dollars away from food stamps.
This nine billion dollar cut, which is still drastically affecting families in 2016, remains unnoticed by a majority of Americans because it is simply “not our problem”. In 2015, a USA Today article stated that a higher percent of children live in poverty now than during the recession. If the thought of a child living in poverty and struggling to survive while their classmates play with their brand new razor scooters make you cringe with discomfort, you need to spend a week in their shoes.
It’s not my fault if they’re in poverty, they need to get a job.
Aha, you got me. That’s right, every single person on the poverty line just sits on the floor all day and stare at the wall. It’s not like they work over eight hour shifts on minimum wage so that they can barely feed their family, or whatever. Not to mention that 28.1 percent of people living below the poverty line in 2014 were disabled. Unfortunately, living as a disabled person in America slices your chances of getting a job by over half.
Well if they’re in poverty, it’s their fault that they got that way.
People lose their jobs. Bills stack up. People get sick and have to go the hospital, and then cannot afford their hospital bill, leaving them in debt. It could happen to everyone, it could even happen to you. Even famous names in today’s media know the struggle of living in poverty. For example, celebrities such as Jay Z, Demi Moore, Jim Carrey, and J.K. Rowling lived in poverty at one point in their lives.
As the 2016 elections are nearing, keep your ears and eyes peeled for the candidates or running mates who bring up poverty, Chances are, none of them will, or all of them will. But keep in mind that words and actions are two different things. As a country, we have ignored poverty for far too long, and we have allowed the government to treat the issue of poverty like it’s an annoying bug. Even state officials and city mayors tend to avoid the issue of poverty simply because it “creates too much controversy”.
If you want to get involved with helping poverty in your home town and don’t know how, ask around about local soup kitchens or homeless shelters. They are always looking for volunteers or donations. And next time you’re walking down the street, and you see someone asking for change, ask yourself this: What if it was you?
