What Poverty Entails

Before the discussion on a lower thread gets any more heated than it has already (not that it is so VERY heated, it is just that stresses and tensions are already high enough), let Pretty Lady clarify a few things, gleaned from Personal Experience.

That is, that life as a member of the American Underclass is utterly unlike anything that most of us with jobs, computers, and middle-class families can comprehend.

Pretty Lady has lived in ghettos. This is what a person living in a ghetto contends with, on a daily basis, with no respite.

Garbage collection and mail delivery is spotty to nonexistent. One cannot receive checks in the mail; they are likely to be stolen. Once, Pretty Lady's vindictive ex-roommate put her new drivers' license and her paycheck on the outside of the mailbox for her to come pick up; Pretty Lady thanks her lucky stars that she got there before a bum did. Once, Pretty Lady dumped her bag in her car, ran indoors for 30 seconds to lock a door, and when she got back, her bag was being rifled on the Bad Corner for cash, I.D., credit cards and camera. She engaged in a months-long battle with Blockbuster Video and its collections agency, over the subsequent theft of 8 overpriced videos, using her expired card and cancelled bank account.

Credit is only available in cash advances of $500 or less, at interest rates of over 30%. (At least it was in the early 90's. Latterly it has been available in mortages of $500,000 or more, at similar interest rates.)

There are no grocery stores within walking distance that carry wholesome, affordable food. Most people are forced to buy nutrient-free, processed junk food at extortionate prices from run-down bodegas full of thugs and junkies.

Schools are dangerous, chaotic, and teach no useful information whatsoever. Drugs are available on every other stoop.

Minimum-wage jobs do not cover your minimum living expenses even if you work two of them. If you get hurt or sick, you usually do not have sick leave, health insurance, or worker's compensation; illness or injury thus frequently results in bankruptcy and homelessness.

You are in chronic danger of being robbed, mugged, hit by a stray bullet or a car driven by a drugged-out thug with no insurance.


It is important to emphasize that if you are born into a ghetto, this is your whole world. You can't take a vacation. You can't call up relatives and get a bailout. You can't call a college classmate and get a reference, a recommendation or a loan. You can't even get a decent meal and a good night's rest in a quiet place without shouting, rap music and gunfire penetrating the walls. You are almost certainly semi-literate and nearly unemployable.

It is important to understand that one does not rise from a ghetto childhood by Individual Will alone. People who rise from ghettos do so because of schools like Bronx Science, scholarships, Pell grants, subsidized housing, Social Security and disability, and mentorship via community service organizations.

Finally, it is important to understand that a society which perpetuates the existence of an underclass, via corrupt governments, parasitic industries, and public apathy, is rotten at the core. The toxicity of the ghetto is not confined to the ghetto; it produces crime, disease, addiction and malaise that spreads to all segments of society. Poverty is not Their Problem; it is ours.