It is without contestation that we in the West are spiraling backwards into a Dickensian order of society; the orange ball-sack is President of the U.S., a woman who hates other women is Prime Minister of the U.K., and the French presidential race is between the equivalent of Mitt Romney vs Ted Cruz. People are getting poorer, and the rich are getting richer. Big companies are operating in a system that a) prevents any kind of flexibility or change, and b) protects them incredibly well, and leaves the destitute believing that they only have themselves to blame for their penury – as if the two are unrelated. We are as poverty stricken as we were a hundred years ago, if not more. According to the U.S. census bureau (in 2014), 50 million of American citizens are experiencing poverty, and of that 30 million are children; so that’s 1 in 5 children experiencing poverty, and that’s with an already painfully low barrier as for what constitutes poverty, standing at a household income of $24,339 per anum for 2 adults and 2 children. 40% of children in poverty aren’t prepared for primary school (meaning that they don’t have proper uniform, or basic literacy skills, etc.), so right at the beginning of their education, they’re already on the back foot. We live in a society that allows David Cameron, a man who owns shares in the tax haven of Panama, be Prime Minister of one of the most powerful nations in the world. Millennials are deeply struggling financially because the generation before us made it okay to exploit people, especially immigrants, for cheap labour.
This is a devastatingly cruel system, and thankfully young people are woke, but it’s having an effect on our mental health. Children (in the U.K.) have target grades that are based on their postcode; the crappier the postcode, the crappier the predicted grade. These target grades follow you throughout your academic life until you go to university. Then your targets are based on your actual academic ability. This kind of assumptive behavior that occurs throughout a person’s childhood has to have an effect; people capable of much more then they’re told they are end up becoming frustrating self fulfilling prophecies. A child capable of As ends up getting Ds because they’ve been told that that’s what they’re going to get. And this extends beyond the classroom – if women don’t go for higher paid jobs due to societal conditioning telling them they’re not worth it, this has to happen with working class and poorer children who are told they deserve the poverty they’re in. And this must be even worse for working class women, people of color, the differently abled, and the LGBT+ community. This scarcity culture is making it even harder for people to overcome poverty, because those experiencing it are becoming more and more certain that they deserve to be in poverty.
I noticed when I went to a college in a rich area, that there’s a pattern found between private school children and public school children, and it’s that privately educated children have this air of confidence about themselves. They believe their thoughts are valuable and that they deserve to be listened to. Every child should be brought up with that confidence, and self efficacy, but you shouldn’t have to pay for that level of esteem. It is a good thing that there are children being brought up in this world with an ingrained belief in themselves. It just shouldn’t be a commodity available to the privileged few. The circumstances of a public school child do not reflect what they deserve, as education, healthcare, a roof, and enough money to put food on the table should be basic human rights. Often they’re not given. And even then, most children will live in fear of things getting worse because they always can.
The government don’t care about poor children, as exemplified by the fact that there is very little funding to help them get into higher education; there are high rates of scholastic absenteeism for children in poverty because they are likely to be working, or caring for a family member. There is very little the government are willing to do to help these situations, so children (in the U.K. at least) have to rely on charities such as Children In Need, and Shelter. Children are perceptive and pick up on social cues telling them that they are worthless. They will pick up on this.
It’s almost a freeing experience when you realize that the reason you’ve been made to feel like utter garbage is because someone is profiting from it, because it makes it at least a little simpler and easier to navigate. But there’s still that crushing feeling of knowing that now you have all these neurotic behaviors that you have to deal with, and there’s nothing you can do about it other than get on with it, and to try and make uncanny decisions to change your life. Forging your own path is difficult and trying not to fall into the trap of poverty is even more so.
As well as poverty being a mental violence, it is also a physical violence. Peter Joseph suggests, in this lecture, “If a person is born into poverty in the midst of an abundant society where it is statistically proven that it would hurt no one to facilitate meeting the basic needs of that person, and yet they die at the age of 30 due to heart disease, which has been found to statistically relate to those who endure the stress and effects of low socioeconomic status, is that death, the removal of those 54 years once again, an act of violence? And the answer is “Yes, it is.”” The idea of a ‘vanishing middle class’ doesn’t seem to pressing. It seems calm, but this is tempestuous and threatening.
Poverty is destroying, both mentally and physically, and no one deserves to go through it. It’s an underestimated form of violence and stems directly from corporate greed. It is justified by governments in the form of austerity, and their supporters mindlessly back it unaware of the consequences. “It’s a necessary evil”, says the Tory party. This is a lie. Discussions on economic inequality and the scars it leaves are always brushed to the side based on arguments claiming their vapidity. Funnily enough, the people arguing this have never experienced economic inequality, or are so disillusioned that they don’t realize they are experiencing or have experienced it. It’s time to broaden the discussion and include the mental effects of poverty since it’s been happening for such a long time.
