Poverty by G.G.

Poverty is something you see in your everyday life on the streets at school and maybe even in your own home. Poverty has been around forever and it’s everywhere except dubai lol. I want to compare some things to a book I read , Absolute true diary of a part time indian and he’s poor. He has to hitchhike to school because his parents don’t have money for gas and if he doesn’t get lucky hitch hiking he walks. Arnold later in the book metes a girl named penelope and they go to the dance and he’s just on his toes hoping she doesn’t want to take a picture because that cost money lol, After the dance penelope’s friends invite her and arnold to eat and he doesn’t want to go because he has 8 $ so he’s in the bathroom about to throw up but one of penelope’s friends gives him 40$ to cover the bill.to me this just shows how emberassed he was of being pooor and he didnt want people to know, and how much a person is willing to lie to hide the truth.

 

Being poor is nothing to be ashamed of things happen you might be at the top and your life goes downhill but there’s always a recovery point where you can turn your life around. There’s always going to be someone who has more or less than you and that’s just how life is.Poverty is a world topic that doesn’t get much attention and when I see these famous athletes and actors going around like africa and providing clean water or a education makes me think there is hope for the world. That someday once enough people do this there won’t be poverty, imagine a world without poverty but a world knowing you ad enough to live now that would be awesome.

 

My parents grew up poor in mexico my mom came from a family of 18 brothers and sisters ! And my dad a family of 10 brothers and sisters and everytime I break something they tell me hey take care of it because there’s people who wish who had that. For example when I was little and I would always lose my toy cars my dad would tell me to not lose them cuase in mexico he didn’t have shit he would have to play with rocks and pretend they were cars. My dad was the second oldest in the family he sacrificed a lot grandparents didn’t have money for school so he dropped out so his younger brother could go to school.

 My dad dropped out and started working like a man in the 3rd grade! I respect my dad and look up to him for overcoming poverty he always tells me it’s not easy but things get better when ronald reagan was president and he was giving papers to immigrants my dad brought over all my aunts and uncles ( his brothers and sisters ) so they could get their papers and have a better life.Once he tried to come at the end because he stayed with my grandparents for a while still once he tried to come he got caught by immigration 2 times and was never able to get his papers but he doesn’t care he’s just grateful he got everyone else here. Every december his brothers and sisters leave to mexico for the end of the year parties and festivals because they have papers and my dad doesn’t but he doesn’t care he knows he’ll go back soon since he already has his papers in process.

 

My dad says being poor wasn’t that bad it taught him a lot and also the family was a lot closer he says he feels when a family has a lot of money the families aren’t as close.Poverty is a everyday thing some people experience it and some don’t luckily for me I didn’t have to because my dad is good with his money and always has had good jobs. And I thank him for that and now that i’m older I understand when he tells me like he take care of it I didn’t have shit . I hope later in time in the world there isn’t poverty but for the mean time i know there’s people doing something I know I do something sometimes when homeless people come to my job i usually give them food everyone deserves a good meal once in awhile.

59% by C.W.

After fumbling with her keys for a couple minutes, Anne Burres, age 49, opened the rotting door to her sparsely furnished room, with one solid bed in the corner and a tiny kitchen in the other. The carpet, a stained canvas of previous owners who had neglected its care. The drywall, that once was a beautiful design of symbols that had slowly faded or cracked under heavy use. To our left, the clear sounds of a man yelling drowned out the sounds of a child crying. In Boulder, this is a lifestyle nearly unheard of, but for Anne, along with 59% of the rest of American people, this is the daily toil that they must fight through known as the American Dream.

I want you to take your hands, put them in front of your face, maybe waggle your fingers to get the blood pumping. Take the first 3 of those fingers on each hand and imagine glueing them together. That’s the percentage of Americans currently working minimum wage jobs. Try to waggle your fingers again, without breaking apart this seal. Not only does it become very hard for this mass of fingers to move, but their movements clumsily attempt the movements of the fingers that are freely unhindered. That’s the society we live in today, a place where the few have advantages to extents they might not even fathom.

So what exactly does living off of minimum wage mean? Well, in Colorado’s case, it means 8.31$ an hour, however this statistic changes across states. The average national minimum wage salary in America is $7.25 an hour (Which is around $14,500 a year.) With the inclusion of taxes that comes around to $10,000 a year. For people like Anne and many others, this is what they must scrape by with annually.

“I try to save up you know? I’ve gotten to go on a couple vacations, but they have to be really cheap, and the last time I went was back in 2009. It was a trip to Venezuela, but I haven’t been able to make it since I’ve been trying to help out my sister financially.” Anne explains to me as we talk and work at the same time.

The average Nuclear Family (Husband, Wife, Daughter, Son) cannot survive on minimum wage and even with a small hike in the minimum wage they do not have enough to survive. Many people like Anne do not have families for this purpose, choosing instead to live by themselves or with one partner but without children.

“We considered it for a time, but I always felt it was a bad idea and so did Shaun. After we split apart I never really wanted to try and fill the gap with someone else or kids, so I’m just living on my own now.” She said.

Here’s another fun problem to work your head around. You’re given 1,150 dollars for your month to survive. The average renting per month in Boulder alone is 1487$ for a one bedroom apartment. So you no longer live in Boulder, let’s try Louisville, Kentucky, which is only $730. Well that’s not so bad, except you have other survival needs aside from housing.

Electrical Bills: $73+ a Month

Health Insurance: $44 a month

Water: $20 a Month

Public Transportation: $63 a Month

Add that all together and you get 907$ per month, leaving you something akin to 250$ for the rest of your month. To top that off, you have to pay for food, possibly even more heating in certain times of year, a child or two to feed, clothe, and take care of, student loans, credit card debts, and countless other minor expenses that we encounter in our day to day lives.

So what can you do to offset these costs, and perhaps save up a little more money? Over the past couple of weeks I searched for the answer to this question, and I found some interesting tidbits as I lived off of minimum wage. Here’s what I learned:

1. You gotta drink water, not only is it a cheap resource but it’s an incredible help in powering you through the day by keeping your belly full. It also reduces the temptation of buying drinks of any form.
2. Avoid fast foods if you can, by preparing meals with cheaper ingredients that can last you longer as leftovers.
3. Stay clean. This might not seem like one of the more list-worthy notes but by keeping sanitary you significantly reduce the chances of catching viruses or unwanted bacteria. Just by doing this you can save lots of money that you might otherwise find being used for a hospital bill.
4. Boredom can quickly become one of your worst enemies. And when living on low income sources going out to see a movie just really isn’t viable. So instead, visit free events, check out books from the library, and going on runs really helps alleviate some of the stir craziness that you may end up feeling.

In situations like this, it can be extremely hard for people to try and also attend school. For me, it was arguably the hardest part of this entire experiment was trying to get into school every day with my assignments completed, whilst also making enough money to provide for myself.

Living below the poverty line can be an incredibly hard time in many people’s lives. In many places across the world there is a correlation between poverty and crime. People are simply forced to make the choice between turning to criminal activities, or searching for limited jobs when there are even jobs available.

Burres stares outside at the purple pink sunrise across the mountains as she cooks a mixture of rice and beans in a large crock pot.“There are days where I don’t want to get up. I just sit in bed and I ask myself if it’s really worth it. I don’t have any dreams of changing the world, I just live. I have to remind myself each morning, and then I can start the day,” She says.

“You never know what’ll happen tomorrow, so pack your bagged lunch today.”

Poverty and Education by H.L.

Education, we are told, can almost guarantee you a high paying job. This, for the most part, is true, so it should be obvious that everyone wants an education. The problem with this is that not everyone has access to a good education. On average, kids living in poverty will not receive as advanced an education as someone living in wealth. There are many reasons for this, including the fact that kids living in poverty are more likely to get a job before finishing high school.

For a family in poverty, getting as much income as possible is a must. Because of this, children may have to take up a job in order to help their families. Wealthy kids, on the other hand, can afford to not have a job until they graduate high school. There is a law which prohibits kids under the age of 16 from working during school hours, but the amount of money a kid who works only after school may not get them as much money as they want, so they may drop out in order to make enough money to support their family.

In addition to this, children living in poverty may not have educated parents, which means they may not be able to get the help they need in order to succeed (although, to be fair, you shouldn’t be relying on your family members to do well in school… how would you learn anything?). Those kids may not be able to do as well in school because of this, so they would have a lower chance of getting into college than, say, a person with substantial wealth.

Which brings us to the topic of college. Assuming that everyone has an equal chance of getting into college, there is the cost of college to worry about. For the wealthy, this is no problem, as their parents can easily pay the tuition, but for anyone who does not have extremely wealthy parents, paying for college may be a deterrent. This is a problem because it means that , in general, only the rich will be able to stay rich. People who have to pay for college will likely have to rely on student loans, and therefore will not be able to make a lot of money early on.

So, what can we do about it? Sadly, not much. The minimum wage can be increased so that kids in poverty would not be forced to work such long hours, freeing up time for school. College costs could also be decreased though I doubt the colleges would be okay with that. It looks as if this trend will continue, and the rich will become richer while the poor stay where they are. This cannot be a good thing, so something must change soon, before this becomes a national crisis (note that this is not as much of a problem in many other countries). Will this be fixed, or will our country fail?