Welcome to The Poverty Trap, a newsletter and podcast for people who are fed up with the inequality baked into America’s system and want to individually and collectively make change.
Despite working three jobs, a teacher by week, a waitress by weeknight, and a retail job on the weekends, my mother could not make enough money to lift our family out of poverty in the early 1960’s. My father who had had a stroke was disabled and the stay-at-home parent by default. It wasn’t until my father died when I was 7 that his Social Security benefit allowed our family a measure of relief. The youngest of five children, I am the only one who made it to college which changed my life by providing opportunities to meaningful work and employer provided health insurance (that actually covered healthcare) three months after graduation. That spring and summer I had almost no money and no support and pawned my high school class ring for grocery money to supplement my waitressing job. Given the costs of college now, the extractive, for-profit healthcare insurance companies, and housing costs, I may not have been able to break out of the cycle of poverty if I was graduating in May of 2025.
For many people that have never lived in poverty and the stress and insecurities of meeting one’s basic needs, it is easier to believe in and propagate the mythos of what creates poverty and have a lack of appreciation for what it takes to move out of the cycle. It may be easier to believe the projected cultural stereotypes or pejorative associations of those experiencing chronic poverty: laziness, less intelligent, cheap, ill-mannered, poor dental hygiene, etc.
All of these negative biases and belief in “meritocracy” serves the broader capitalist system.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful and insightful comment, Deb. It sometimes takes decades, if ever, to break out of the cycle of poverty—with everything "going right" during that time. I understand the impact of a loss of a parent, myself—my father died suddenly when I was 17 and my mother and I lived primarily on both our social security checks, although we did have our house to live in paid for with an insurance policy. One certainly grows up fast...and understands more than most about poverty after life-changing events— which can happen at any time and to anyone.
I am so glad to have partners in the task of fighting income inequality.
Same here. And I'm guessing there are more than we know.
Despite working three jobs, a teacher by week, a waitress by weeknight, and a retail job on the weekends, my mother could not make enough money to lift our family out of poverty in the early 1960’s. My father who had had a stroke was disabled and the stay-at-home parent by default. It wasn’t until my father died when I was 7 that his Social Security benefit allowed our family a measure of relief. The youngest of five children, I am the only one who made it to college which changed my life by providing opportunities to meaningful work and employer provided health insurance (that actually covered healthcare) three months after graduation. That spring and summer I had almost no money and no support and pawned my high school class ring for grocery money to supplement my waitressing job. Given the costs of college now, the extractive, for-profit healthcare insurance companies, and housing costs, I may not have been able to break out of the cycle of poverty if I was graduating in May of 2025.
For many people that have never lived in poverty and the stress and insecurities of meeting one’s basic needs, it is easier to believe in and propagate the mythos of what creates poverty and have a lack of appreciation for what it takes to move out of the cycle. It may be easier to believe the projected cultural stereotypes or pejorative associations of those experiencing chronic poverty: laziness, less intelligent, cheap, ill-mannered, poor dental hygiene, etc.
All of these negative biases and belief in “meritocracy” serves the broader capitalist system.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful and insightful comment, Deb. It sometimes takes decades, if ever, to break out of the cycle of poverty—with everything "going right" during that time. I understand the impact of a loss of a parent, myself—my father died suddenly when I was 17 and my mother and I lived primarily on both our social security checks, although we did have our house to live in paid for with an insurance policy. One certainly grows up fast...and understands more than most about poverty after life-changing events— which can happen at any time and to anyone.