During the course so far we have spent lots of time reading the book “$2.00 A Day.” This books focuses on a few families in different situations among those in poverty, and how they are managing to survive. The authors write about a range of families consisting of one single mom and her kid to families that have up to 20 or more people living in a two or three-bedroom apartment, where sometimes there are more kids than adults. The book also tells about the welfare system in the different cities, and even states, in which these families live, and how welfare programs help, or rather do not help, them in their struggle to survive. The authors explain what resources are available for these families and what resources are not, and how these families cope with their lack of resources and lack of support. The book ends with ways that the government and the public can work to implement plans of action that could truly help these people living in the lowest form of poverty to rise above the “$2.00 a day” threshold of extreme poverty, and help them get possibly even closer to a decent and stable life.
While reading this book, the stories from these people and the situations that they have encountered impressed me. They experienced heart-breaking misfortune and miserable instability. Thinking about the kids in these situations caused me some empathic sadness, as they will grow up not knowing anything else and thinking that this way of life is totally normal and fine. Eventually when they get old enough they will realize what kind of conditions and life they are living in, but until then they won’t even realize that they are not getting to experience the basic childhood that every child should get to experience. It was also very upsetting to think about little kids going hungry and crying themselves to sleep, and how terrible that must have made their moms feel. I cannot even imagine how much it emotionally hurt the moms to listen to their kids cry themselves to sleep from hunger and to not be able to provide for them food because she had to sell the family SNAP supply for cash to keep the heat and lights on. It was also very discouraging to hear that some moms are practically killing themselves, physically, just to give their kids the chance to go to school and wear the uniform and have school supplies so that they have at least have some time in their lives where they feel normal and feel like they belong. The unstable housing otherwise deprived them of having a place where they could belong.
When I was reading about how some of these families have been in multiple homeless shelters over the course of a few months to a year, because the shelters have a time limit in which a family can stay, it was not only very upsetting but also slightly infuriating that we as a country are allowing for this to happen and allowing for families with children to live like this. No body, especially young children who are at very crucial points in development, should have to live a life where they are always moving or getting asked to leave from places that are the only thing ensuring at least some amount of safety for them during the night. I also fully believe that if someone is still trying to find work actively, like one of the mothers in this book was doing, then they should not have to worry about being kicked out of the shelter and worried about finding a new place to stay. I can understand, however right or wrong, asking someone to leave after three or four months of staying in the same shelter if they are not actively seeking a job or trying to find a way out, but if a resident is really trying then they should be allowed to stay and not have to worry about a time limit before getting asked to leave.
Another shocking factor in this book is the amount of illegal activity that so many families have to—regretfully and not very willingly—participate in just to survive. Without partaking in some of the illegal measures discussed in this book, families risk starving to death, freezing to death, or not being able to get money for rent and therefore getting thrown out on to the street with nowhere to go. These practices also allowed for some families to have water for using the restroom, cooking, and bathing. For those who had a car, they also needed the cash from these transactions to buy gas to keep the car going. As a result of many very poor families needing cash, not just government issued debit cards, many families had to result to selling their SNAP benefits, their kids’ social security numbers for others to claim them as dependents, and even their bodies (for the women mainly) in order to bring in any cash that they possibly could. In some instances, some females would have sex with men, sometimes older or younger than them, in exchange for food because they were desperately hungry. Often times, these situations of women having sex with different men would lead to more pregnancies and therefore more mouths to try and feed and house. This, to me, is just sickening. In response to try and survive, the problem ends up growing and more problems result, such as STDs among the women and girls having sex with several men.
In response to these situations happening all over our country, we as Americans need to step up to the plate and work to improve and eventually end this vicious cycle that so many good, hard-working Americans are trapped in. Americans need to push for better funding and better programs to help those on the very bottom, as well push for stronger regulations on where the money goes and what it is actually used for. They need to make sure that states or agencies are not cheating those people who really need the money out of it for the states’ own needs, but instead that all of the government money for the welfare programs is going towards helping those who truly need it. There also needs to be greater support from the American people for the private agencies and organizations/groups working towards doing their part in ending the suppression of those on the very bottom. With more support from Americans as a whole, and across the country, the chance of eliminating severe poverty especially, and at least lessoning the number of those in poverty, will significantly grow. This is a problem that is going to take effort from at least the majority of the country’s citizens and the government in order to eliminate or at least improve.
Your reaction to the cries of the children who were sobbing because they were so hungry and there was nothing to feed them reminds me of that old Brecht musical, which has the lines:
Ihr Herrn, die ihr uns lehrt, wie man brav leben
Und Sünd und Missetat vermeiden kann
Zuerst müßt ihr uns was zu fressen geben
Dann könnt ihr reden: damit fängt es an.
Ihr, die ihr euren Wanst und unsre Bravheit liebt
Das eine wisset ein für allemal:
Wie ihr es immer dreht und wie ihr's immer schiebt
Erst kommt das Fressen, dann kommt die Moral.
Erst muß es möglich sein auch armen Leuten
Vom großen Brotlaib sich ihr Teil zu schneiden.
This reaction essay captures the general process of converting a person toward an attitude of greater sympathy to the plight of paupers, and eliciting from them a greater commitment to seeing improved anti-poverty policies and services, greater volunteerism, and a heightened sense of priorities related to caring for persons experiencing poverty. You read realistic accounts of the struggles people face, and this provoked a powerful reaction, and to cope with the reaction, you are suggesting better policies and services. Bear in mind that this is an effective way to educate people to gain their support for any suggestion of improved policies (like providing stable housing assurances to the poorest of the poor); you need to let people hear stories about how harmful it is for children to live without stable housing.
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