This article doesn’t know it but it’s explaining to middle-class people what being poor is like.
But comments with many replies seem to draw more attention so I will add to this:
I have taught in an area that is poor. The opioid epidemic piled on top of that poverty to ravage it further. Students came to school and would say they were going to their uncle's in the next town tonight. I would say oh that's nice, what will you do. They would say, take a shower. We don't have running water so we go there once a week.
Basic needs that anyone in the middle class like me take for granted become focal points every day for someone living in poverty.
Do I put $5 of gas in my car or buy food? My car broke down and I can't afford to fix it. My minimum wage job uses dynamic scheduling and they just said I have to come in. My friend who I texted to take me can't do it at this time. There's no public transportation. How do I get to work? And if I do, who is there when my kids get home from school?
It's an insidious cycle. You can't see 5 feet in front of you and the treadmill never stops running.
God, I hope people read your comment and the article.
It is the kind of thing I can understand. Everyone, at every income level has problems that are very real to them. At the same time, I look at their complaints in light of what someone in poverty deals with everyday and their complaints are pitiful.
I agree with the need for perspective. The well off really need to know what the rest of the world is like, so they make decisions that take their effects on others into account. The disadvantaged really need to know what the path to being well off looks like, so they can apply their voices and efforts to the places that will make a difference. I've been in that place where a rise in the price of ramen or gasoline could make it impossible to pay rent. I've also been fortunate to find myself in a much better place.
However, we don't gain much by forbidding any displeasure for all but the worst sufferers. Failing to get a job at FAANG doesn't magically move that money into the hands of people who desperately need it. Being set back in one's own fortunate life still sucks.
We all need empathy at times, nobody should have a monopoly on empathy. Mutual empathy builds bridges, monopolized empathy builds resentment.
I think that people need to feel a sense of agency, self control, and meaning. That sometimes means they feel the need to greatly downplay the role of good fortune in their current life circumstances, and play up the mistakes of others to explain others' situations. It's an extremely common cognitive distortion, and it causes a real sickness in society.
I'll elaborate based on my own experiences. To me, this article is explaining an extremely common phenomenon where people who have "played the game" or "been on the conveyor belt" realize that the game is a lie. In the conveyor belt world, we're taught to get good grades, aim for a promotion, etc. And as long as we keep doing well in a structured environment, goodness will flow.
Those of us how are poor do not get to get on the conveyor belt without great luck or triple the work that it took our monied peers to do the same. Great disruptions to the conveyor belt show those who have never been off it what it is like to fend for oneself as all those who were not fortunate enough to get on had to.
Most of my adult life I was poor. I had a wife and child. I worked as a customer service rep for a well-known cellular provider. I made just over ~20K and my wife didn't work. It would have been awesome to make more money, but I could leave my job at the office and my free time was 100% my own. I was carefree.
Later I decided I needed to keep up. I mean, I'd always been ambitious but I didn't know how to make myself actually do stuff. I figured that out, became a developer.
Now, I make by far the most I've ever made, well over 100K. And I can't leave my work at home. And my company is constantly struggling to make ends meet and I'm a critical piece in making sure that happens from payroll to payroll so people don't lose their jobs and so I don't lose my job. And that's why I get paid what I do. But the stress is incredible. I often wonder what the point is. I work >8 hours every day, because I can work from home.
And people say, you should be happy you have a job! I remember being happy not having a job. A bunch of people I know don't have jobs but have been making a really nice income off unemployment and get to do whatever they want all day. A family member I know who tells me this is on disability (the outcome of lifestyle decisions very much under her control) and owns a house and goes on vacations every month or two. She must be a wizard with money, but still.
Figuring out how to force myself to produce, every day, all day, didn't make me happier. The reason I wasn't producing is because I do not want to produce all day, every day. It sucks. The machine incentivizes me to. The machine requires it.
If you want to be middle class, you have to do what the machine tells you. For a very large fraction of the population, I'm guessing doing what the machine tells you doesn't make them happy so they never quite get the hang of it and stay poor.
The happiest and most stress free times in my life were being poor. Of course, it'd be nice to have more money too. But you only get that from bowing to the machine or making other people who are bowing to the machine give it to you, which is an extra layer of evil.
> I was carefree.
These two statements are inconsistent. As someone who's lived a few years at earning ~20K, I can say that when 70% of your income goes to rent/mortgage, and 30% split between automotive/basic necessities, you are never carefree. Your always one mistake, one mishap, one unlucky event away from being homeless and destitute. When you can't celebrate any event, any birthday, any Christmas or holiday, can't engage in any activity that costs any amount money, and can't save anything? Every moment you spend planning and worrying to try to keep your head above water. Not sure how you can be carefree while you're constantly at the edge of losing everything you have and the ability to get it back.
Is the relationship such that the more there is to lose, the easier it is to be unaffected by worry?
There is nowhere in the US where $20k per year will give you security of any type (food, water, shelter, healthcare, schooling, etc) to provide for your family, not to mention a $20k per year job is likelier to have no ability to move up in any significant way.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2003/08/18/the-marriage-c...