1. 1074
    20
    Aug
    dressesandyarn: torayot: amaevis: cognitivedissonance: Recently, The Heritage Foundation released a report on poverty in American, largely trying to debunk the idea that poor people are poor. They included facts like the majority of people living in poverty have refrigerators, microwaves, and air conditioners. Never mind these things might be attached to a rental unit of some kind… it’s not like those items listed are big-ticket items, particularly when bought used.  I met a family the other day who, according to the Heritage Foundation, is living in the lap of luxury. I’ll let you folks make up your minds.  I was at the Salvation Army last week and was looking at the appliances. There was an older microwave for $5. A woman in front of me (I’ll call her Ann) at the register bought the microwave and was telling her kids they’d get microwave popcorn again. It looked like that $5 microwave made those kids’ day. Now, that microwave would have been included in The Heritage Foundation’s analysis because she also receives WIC, and Heritage Foundation is especially interested in those receiving federal benefits. I know she receives WIC, because she asked me if all the grocery stores in town took it. Ann just moved here about three weeks ago and was staying with a friend who was now in the process of moving away. I talked to her for about half an hour outside the store. She asked if I knew which hotel was the cheapest and cleanest, because she couldn’t afford the rent here (college is about to start, so the cheapest rentals are gone) and she’s on a list for a housing voucher. I helped her put a suitcase on a luggage rack on the top of her car to make room for the microwave in her trunk. She mentioned she was glad to have a place to work and, she hoped, a place to live. I asked where she moved from. She said Denver, and that she and her kids were living in their car for a few months (in the midst of a heat wave) because her landlord kicked her out and she had nowhere to go. Ann said she never signed a lease and the landlord evicted her with just a few hours notice because her two-year-old was too noisy. She was afraid to go for DFS for help because she thought they’d take the kids, what with them living in the car. She interviewed for a job at a fast food place here about a week ago and starts this Monday. She’d been out of work for about 5 months when she moved up here. I gave her the phone numbers for every community resource I could think of, pointed her towards the hotels I knew were cheap and clean, and offered to help in any way I could. Ann said that I’d helped, that she already knew how to get along the best she could, and that “being poor takes skills you don’t know you have ‘til you need them.” But according to Heritage Foundation, she’s not poor. She and her 3 kids are living in a hotel here that has a fridge, a queen bed (or two), a $5 microwave she bought, and she’s living in the lap of luxury (as defined by them)? I don’t think so. Their report exemplifies what I (and others) call “Poor people can’t have nice things.” Basically, if you have a very basic amenity, like a microwave, you’re obviously not poor. Apparently, being poor involves some kind of “noble suffering” and if you aren’t suffering Oliver Twist-style, you aren’t poor.  I can see Ann and her kids were struggling. But that’s seemingly not “low” enough for folks at the Heritage Foundation. I don’t care what “amenities” people in poverty supposedly have - to me, one person being one paycheck away from homelessness or food insecurity is one too many. One in seven Americans currently rely on food stamps to eat. And never mind those folks trying to subsist on the goodwill of others and/or unemployment. I’m not going to quibble about a cell phone or a television.  I hope she’s doing alright, the job works out, and the kids get microwave popcorn. Fuck conservatives. Fuck ‘em hard. Fuck ‘em with a big dildo. How low of a standard of living is acceptable for our FELLOW HUMAN BEINGS? There’s a similar line of thought in England as well - apparently, you’re only really poor if you’re a bedraggled pauper living in a Victorian novel, otherwise you do not fulfil the rich person’s self-indulgent fantasy of what “real” poor people are like. Similarly: when middle class folks ask how homeless people have cell phones. Consider that homeless people have family and friends, have to be able to make appointments and meetings just like everyone else. You can buy a used pay-as-you-go phone for cheap, less than $20. And with the rise in texting, not just for friends, but reminders for appointments (something the agency I work for has been experimenting with and getting good results), being in contact with people is cheap and easy. I’d just like to put one more plug in for the fact that, when you’re a homeowner, all these appliances & amenities are things you have to buy.  But when you’re renting, most of these things are included with the apartment.  Even the holiest holes I looked at as a university student had at least access to a shared fridge & microwave. The other thing that this brings up for me, is that I’m sure many people reading the Heritage Foundation’s report will be hearing “people on WIC have fridges” and thinking of their own appliances, which are likely no more than 15 years old and at the time not the bottom of the barrel.  At the moment, I’m lucky enough to have a fridge that’s only 4-5 years old - it came from Costco and my landlady got it for about $150.  We asked for it because the early-80s fridge that was in the apartment when we moved in was rusty, loud, and smelled bad, on the worse end of the similar-era fridges I’ve known over the years.  So I feel like any report of this sort really needs to include a page of comparisons between the $5 microwave someone can find at the Sally Ann, and the $500 giant over-the-stove microwave that my grandparents are able to afford, between a fridge or a stove hanging on from the 70s or 80s that’s been through however many renters but still works okay and would cost money to dispose of anyway and a skookum new appliance twice the size and with extra features.

    dressesandyarn:

    torayot:

    amaevis:

    cognitivedissonance:

    Recently, The Heritage Foundation released a report on poverty in American, largely trying to debunk the idea that poor people are poor. They included facts like the majority of people living in poverty have refrigerators, microwaves, and air conditioners. Never mind these things might be attached to a rental unit of some kind… it’s not like those items listed are big-ticket items, particularly when bought used. 

    I met a family the other day who, according to the Heritage Foundation, is living in the lap of luxury. I’ll let you folks make up your minds. 

    I was at the Salvation Army last week and was looking at the appliances. There was an older microwave for $5. A woman in front of me (I’ll call her Ann) at the register bought the microwave and was telling her kids they’d get microwave popcorn again. It looked like that $5 microwave made those kids’ day. Now, that microwave would have been included in The Heritage Foundation’s analysis because she also receives WIC, and Heritage Foundation is especially interested in those receiving federal benefits.

    I know she receives WIC, because she asked me if all the grocery stores in town took it. Ann just moved here about three weeks ago and was staying with a friend who was now in the process of moving away. I talked to her for about half an hour outside the store. She asked if I knew which hotel was the cheapest and cleanest, because she couldn’t afford the rent here (college is about to start, so the cheapest rentals are gone) and she’s on a list for a housing voucher.

    I helped her put a suitcase on a luggage rack on the top of her car to make room for the microwave in her trunk. She mentioned she was glad to have a place to work and, she hoped, a place to live. I asked where she moved from. She said Denver, and that she and her kids were living in their car for a few months (in the midst of a heat wave) because her landlord kicked her out and she had nowhere to go. Ann said she never signed a lease and the landlord evicted her with just a few hours notice because her two-year-old was too noisy. She was afraid to go for DFS for help because she thought they’d take the kids, what with them living in the car. She interviewed for a job at a fast food place here about a week ago and starts this Monday. She’d been out of work for about 5 months when she moved up here.

    I gave her the phone numbers for every community resource I could think of, pointed her towards the hotels I knew were cheap and clean, and offered to help in any way I could. Ann said that I’d helped, that she already knew how to get along the best she could, and that “being poor takes skills you don’t know you have ‘til you need them.”

    But according to Heritage Foundation, she’s not poor. She and her 3 kids are living in a hotel here that has a fridge, a queen bed (or two), a $5 microwave she bought, and she’s living in the lap of luxury (as defined by them)? I don’t think so. Their report exemplifies what I (and others) call “Poor people can’t have nice things.” Basically, if you have a very basic amenity, like a microwave, you’re obviously not poor. Apparently, being poor involves some kind of “noble suffering” and if you aren’t suffering Oliver Twist-style, you aren’t poor. 

    I can see Ann and her kids were struggling. But that’s seemingly not “low” enough for folks at the Heritage Foundation. I don’t care what “amenities” people in poverty supposedly have - to me, one person being one paycheck away from homelessness or food insecurity is one too many. One in seven Americans currently rely on food stamps to eat. And never mind those folks trying to subsist on the goodwill of others and/or unemployment. I’m not going to quibble about a cell phone or a television. 

    I hope she’s doing alright, the job works out, and the kids get microwave popcorn.

    Fuck conservatives. Fuck ‘em hard. Fuck ‘em with a big dildo.

    How low of a standard of living is acceptable for our FELLOW HUMAN BEINGS?

    There’s a similar line of thought in England as well - apparently, you’re only really poor if you’re a bedraggled pauper living in a Victorian novel, otherwise you do not fulfil the rich person’s self-indulgent fantasy of what “real” poor people are like.

    Similarly: when middle class folks ask how homeless people have cell phones.

    Consider that homeless people have family and friends, have to be able to make appointments and meetings just like everyone else. You can buy a used pay-as-you-go phone for cheap, less than $20. And with the rise in texting, not just for friends, but reminders for appointments (something the agency I work for has been experimenting with and getting good results), being in contact with people is cheap and easy.

    I’d just like to put one more plug in for the fact that, when you’re a homeowner, all these appliances & amenities are things you have to buy.  But when you’re renting, most of these things are included with the apartment.  Even the holiest holes I looked at as a university student had at least access to a shared fridge & microwave.

    The other thing that this brings up for me, is that I’m sure many people reading the Heritage Foundation’s report will be hearing “people on WIC have fridges” and thinking of their own appliances, which are likely no more than 15 years old and at the time not the bottom of the barrel.  At the moment, I’m lucky enough to have a fridge that’s only 4-5 years old - it came from Costco and my landlady got it for about $150.  We asked for it because the early-80s fridge that was in the apartment when we moved in was rusty, loud, and smelled bad, on the worse end of the similar-era fridges I’ve known over the years.  So I feel like any report of this sort really needs to include a page of comparisons between the $5 microwave someone can find at the Sally Ann, and the $500 giant over-the-stove microwave that my grandparents are able to afford, between a fridge or a stove hanging on from the 70s or 80s that’s been through however many renters but still works okay and would cost money to dispose of anyway and a skookum new appliance twice the size and with extra features.

    1. algebra-calculators7055 reblogged this from cognitivedissonance
    2. lovinglaughingcreating reblogged this from cognitivedissonance and added:
      Having lived through similar situations...my childhood, reading
    3. seabiscuit-the-impaler reblogged this from cloudspanties
    4. laminatedbandit reblogged this from stfuconservatives
    5. cheshirecaticus reblogged this from yamino
    6. that-guy-with-a-turban reblogged this from stfuconservatives
    7. m0ny reblogged this from bri-ecrit
    8. bri-ecrit reblogged this from cognitivedissonance
    9. mustelidae reblogged this from sweetcalamity
    10. scarvy reblogged this from dixiechicken
    11. tobeamodernman reblogged this from cognitivedissonance
    12. emotionalorphan reblogged this from cognitivedissonance
    13. tealeaves reblogged this from stfuconservatives and added:
      and all of this.
    14. genscompliques reblogged this from stfuconservatives and added:
      next thing you know, poor people will be breathing the rich man’s air! imagine that!
    15. aquadragon reblogged this from stfuconservatives
    16. heroin-e reblogged this from madamethursday
    17. antithestasia reblogged this from stfuconservatives and added:
      Some of them there poor folk even use toilet paper and eat with a spoon and everything! Imagine the decadence!
    18. mckeegles reblogged this from actyourrage
    19. actyourrage reblogged this from stfuconservatives
    20. airandangels reblogged this from chrryblssmninja and added:
      I thought the point the chart was meant to make was not ‘poor people aren’t as poor as you think,’ but ‘the appliances...
    21. swagandpassion reblogged this from str8nochaser and added:
      Wow! Poor people have refrigerators!? 0_o Is that a surprise? The idea of poverty needs to be reevaluated…
    22. chrryblssmninja reblogged this from 7266 and added:
      Thank you to the commentary. SERIOUSLY, THOUGH, THAT CHART DOES NOT SEND THE MESSAGE THEY’RE TRYING TO SEND. AND WHAT...
    23. bilt2tumble reblogged this from cognitivedissonance and added:
      (edit; reformat after Tumblr mobile mangle) Obviously here’s...cognitive disconnect here....
    24. forgottenstardust reblogged this from letmetellyoumystory
avatar_96
I knit. And do other things. And then photograph them.


  1. My Japan Memories
    Yarny Knitty Goodness
    btw I LOVE FOXES

Page 1 of 1

Following

See more stuff I like