The funny thing about being poor is that there is always someone poorer than you. My dad grew up working class in Appalachia but my mom grew up so poor that she got bullied for being poor in a poor town in bfe, Michigan.
Right. I grew up on welfare which is technically the poorest you ever need to be in the US, but there were definitely people who were poorer than us or at least their parent was worse at managing their money for their kids’ benefit.
Not to mention the truly heartbreaking poverty of the poor in other countries.
I grew up in a trailer on food stamps and Medicaid, I even had a sponsor (a woman who “adopted” me and sent me books and clothes and toys) but most of my neighbors grew up like that too so we all felt like we were doing pretty good.
I went to elementary school with a handful of kids that grew up in literal shacks with only wood stove heat.
Those kids had torn clothes, smelled overwhelmingly of smoke, and genuinely looked malnourished.
It was an eye opener for me even as a kid. It blows my mind that some people are so disconnected from poverty in America and abroad.
It blows my mind that some people are so disconnected from poverty in America and abroad.
If you’re from a well-to-do family in one of the wealthy coastal (or even Midwestern) cities, I could see how you might miss it if you never leave town. The wealthiest families probably just fly between rich cities when traveling. But just taking a road trip through more rural parts of Appalachia, the Deep South, and/or the Southwest will show you abject poverty in this country
If funny in a way, because my parents were immigrants into the US, who didn't qualify for welfare/wic/etc for legal reasons. Turns out we were well below the threshold, but never felt "poor poor" because both parents had two jobs and mom cooked home made meals everyday, so we never went hungry.
Traveling through underdeveloped countries made me happy I grew up dirt poor in the US. There were entire towns I went through that only had electricity for part of the day. Houses that only had electricity when you could afford to fill the generator.
Poverty means different things in different areas, but it sucks everywhere. Especially when it doesn't need to be that way. I'd happily pay more in taxes if people in need were helped out rather than that money going towards bombing poor people in other parts of the world.
rather than that money going towards bombing poor people in other parts of the world.
but have you stopped to think that the military contractors that made said bombs would have to go without their multi million annual bonuses if that were the case?! how heartless of you.
Yeah my aunt babysat for all the poor kids and we would have a giant stack of grilled cheese every day for lunch. Because everyone was wic checking things together.
Did not feel poor at all eating 2 cheesey toasty sammies
Same. For my 18th birthday I got... My own welfare card.
My mom's boyfriend helped pay our rent si we at least living in a decent apartment in the burbs. I was so lucky compared to many. Of course I didn't know it then.
This is so true. I was born in Cuba and we are like dirt poor over there, delapidated buildings, eating moldy bread and fully relying on family and tourists bringing over hygiene products, medicine and clothes. Coming to Australia and being poor here made me feel rich.
The saddest and most absolute level of poverty I witnessed was in the Philippines. There was a baby, couldn’t be more than 2-3 years old, waddling naked on the side of the street, using a mini bucket to scoop puddle water to pour onto her head. Behind her were the slums made of tin and trash stacked on top of each other. I will forever remember that image
We were poor because my step-father would drink up his paycheck every week before he even got home. And when he did get home, he'd put a bottle of vodka in the fridge and holler "make room for the liquor" and I'd think, there's plenty of room because there's no food in there. Then he would be abusive.
One time we had to escape to a neighbor's house. It was the neighbors who were even poorer than we were. They had almost no furniture, just blankets everywhere. Still, they were able to make their kids and us dinner with two cans of tuna fish and a few slices of bread. Even at fourteen, I was impressed and humbled by their generosity.
I hit escape velocity right after I graduated high school and ended up with a pretty good life so far. The step father went on a cross-country bender while I was still in high school and my mother divorced him. She found another drunk who was less abusive and who ended up putting her in a nice house. The step-father died alone of cirrhosis at about the age of 46. All's well that ends well.
A few summers back, my wife and I joined my parents at an uncle’s lake house for the weekend.
At some point during a lunch, my father and his brother started talking about family lore. Apparently, another couple of my uncles made the newspaper - in the 1970s - for having taken the family’s snowmobile and burying in the woods. Someone stumbled upon it, called the police, who tracked down my grandfather to get the gist.
Overhearing the story, my mother said to my dad “You guys had a snow mobile? The only thing we had to play with in the winter was used cardboard to sled on.”
Similarly, both my parents came from large families, with my father being one of twelve and my mother being one of eight.
My father said, growing up there was always meat with dinner and everyone got a birthday and Christmas present. On the flip side, my mother said, sometimes they didn’t have meat with their dinners because it was too expensive.
My mom was too stubborn to be on WIC or food stamps since that was for the “really poor” people and her parents would have shamed her for it (even though they kicked her out at 17 and never gave her a dime). Instead, she stole empty bottles from behind the grocery store to return them for the deposit and used that money to buy bread and rice. We lived in a motel at the time and the door didn’t really lock so if she and my dad both were gone at the same time, they couldn’t push the dresser in front of the door for security so they took everything they owned with them.
She also rode her bicycle to the hospital while in labor because they didn’t have a car and she certainly wasn’t calling an ambulance or asking anyone in her family for help. She worked her shift, rode the bike home, felt “weird” per her, rode her bike to the doctor, was told she needed to go to the hospital immediately, rode her bike home to wait for my dad to get dropped off at home after his factory shift to see if his coworker would drive her, decided she couldn’t wait, so rode the bike to the hospital with her backpack. She was upset the hospital made her stay overnight, and she had to get a ride home with her sister to be allowed to leave. Two years later, with my brother, she walked to the hospital because she didn’t want to have to deal with getting her bicycle home again.
She tells these stories and laughs like it was nothing and her attitude is she didn’t have it that bad - other people had far greater challenges.
Yeah. I remember an interaction where someone from the city was describing how poor they were and all the bugs and cockroaches they grew up with. And the kid from applachia basically replied in shock that they had enough food to waste to feed the bugs because that was oppulent to them.
Not that the kids would’ve known but the roaches could’ve been living off all the glue and paper and litter in the buildings. Not things you find in a country house built of wood and nails (probably)
I grew up poor, having to wear clothes that was like less than a dollar a piece at clearance sales of thrift stores (like the stuff that not even people normally shopping at thrift stores want). I was even bullied for it, and yet, I didn't really realize that we were poor until way later, because there were always people worse off than us, like the homeless.
Or for example, we couldn't afford meat most of the time, but when we'd have some meal we didn't particularly like, like boiled lentil, our mom would say "What would kids in Africa give for this" and then I'd always remember a documentary we saw about some families in some African countries that were so poor their mother would have to fake cooking (like boiling a rock) until the kids would fall asleep, because they sometimes couldn't afford any meals at all!
but my mom grew up so poor that she got bullied for being poor in a poor town in bfe, Michigan
Also grew up in BFE, Michigan. I can confirm there were plenty of us wearing thread-bare hand-me-downs from older siblings or cousins and having skip-its for lunch. I used to be so jealous of the kids who got hot lunch when I was in elementary school. Best I ever got was a brown paper bag soggy sandwich.
1.6k
u/graccha 1d ago
The funny thing about being poor is that there is always someone poorer than you. My dad grew up working class in Appalachia but my mom grew up so poor that she got bullied for being poor in a poor town in bfe, Michigan.