The Real Cause of Poverty with Matthew Desmond - Factually! - 215 

When I feed the poor, I'm called a saint. But when I ask why the poor can't afford food, you call me a communist...

We halved child poverty with the stroke of a pen during Covid and then just let that shit expire. I won’t listen to anyone who says we can’t afford for all people to have a decent life.

The worst part of struggling is the insecurity that drives the struggle. Fear is a destructive motivator.

My oldest son just turned 19 and my boomer Mom asked me the other day, "When are you going to make him get a job?" and my reply shocked her. I said "He has his whole life to suffer under this capitalist hellscape... why the hell would I force him to start working young like I had to?" I make enough to support my whole family without him working, so I am not going to force him to work. I hate that there is so much disparity in the way people live with no actual reason for it to be so disparate. There are people driving cars that cost as much as houses and yet there are millions without housing... it makes no freaking sense.

It's sad that someone whose positions on poverty are so mild and centrist, literally just give less to the rich, is completely beyond anything our politicians are willing to accept.

My family of 3 makes $65,000 a year with "benefits" yet we are homeless. Excellent credit, a little in savings and still can't find housing. Can't use our benefits to see the doctor. Don't qualify for food aid because we don't have an address. This system blows donkey balls

When I became unable to work and my wife's income was low enough that I was eligible for ACA through SSI/Medicaid, I suddenly felt the sharp sting of the political rhetoric friends and often family members would parrot about people on welfare. People always say, "we don't mean you". Really, then who exactly do you mean? The thinly veiled racism makes me sick.

I think a lot of us have been convinced that we can't do anything about poverty.

Surrendering to the pervasiveness of poverty is the MOST American thing. Puritanism is the heart of every American value, and Puritans worshipped the idea that "Godly" people were wealthy, and poor people had done something to earn God's wrath.

can confirm, when i was going to college i couldnt get any support from FAFSA because combined my family made 10 bucks over the cut off. but here's the kickers:

The problem is poverty is too profitable for the powerful. Poverty makes people desperate, and desperation means they’ll work as long as the boss wants for as little as the boss is willing to pay. Poverty also fuels the prison industrial complex, which gives companies cheap (and in some cases, slave) labor.

The problem is that Unions did not miraculously "get weak", they were in many places deliberately cut off at the knees by introducing laws to limit or prohibit collective bargain rights.

I have been living in extreme poverty all my life. I'm 33 years old, disabled, mentally ill, and receive less than a thousand dollars a month to live on. Most medical procedures I need aren't covered by my Medicaid, or require jumping through impossible hoops to get covered. I pay attention to how things are because I don't get a break from it, ever. I hope we find a way to change the perspectives of those who have the power to make these changes and instill in them a sense of empathy and understanding, because this is not fair and it is not right. No one deserves to live like this, and I hope people who don't live like this come to see that.

“How does the richest country in the world have so much poverty?” The sentence literally answers itself.

As a single parent (woman) with three children I would like to add that my life has completely changed since divorce and my outlook is quite bad. I had a good professional career for 15 years and I’m university educated. I gave up work to raise my children - this was 8 years when I separated from my husband. I couldn’t them work full time as the childcare costs would have taken all my income. I get the bare minimum from my ex husband despite the fact he has over 100k income but he’s remarried with new children. I work part time and claim benefits to cover the costs of rent and living costs. Also I can’t work full time now as I had to accept rental housing outside the school transportation zones so I still have to drive my kids to and from school. I feel trapped by circumstances and can’t save to improve my situation. I’m an intelligent person that did everything right but now I’m in poverty. Its insulting to perceive that these are my choices when I see it as systemic failure. I’d say the majority in poverty are single female parents and we are heavily judged for it

My wife and I were on rental assistance from COVID, and our state had it end in a horrible way. When we went to call that month to renew for help, the employees told us they were informed that morning the program had ended. There had been absolutely no warning whatsoever even to the workers handling calls to register people for the help. They dropped it like a bad habit.

From one of my favorite songs:

how we treat our disabled americans is one of the things about poverty in america that really breaks my heart the most. Like you do your best to keep your head above water and play the game, then because of medical issues you can't fix or have any control over you have to sell your house if you ever even had one, practically be homeless, get rejected automatically and have to wait a year or two to even get a chance in court. and then you're stuck renting, and barely making enough to really do anything and that's only if you paid in enough to social security to even qualify for SSDI and SSI or are old enough to qualify. Then you have to just barely scrape by. And people tell you that you are a leech on society and just feeding off their taxes.

I'm in the Uk and there are many similarities with the class system, poverty structures etc. Our housing system is in terrible shape because of a lack of building/repair/renovation and the reliance on property as investment instead of as places to live. Buy-to-let mortgages have contributed to skyrocketing house prices, ridiculous rents, poor housing conditions and homelessness, with working people needing to use food banks to be able to live. The rich keep getting richer, and fear is causing further division and cruelty. One of the things I've noticed (particularly in the US) is that the idea of socialism is often demonised by those who don't understand what it means, or deliberately misinterpret the term to ensure continuation of unfettered capitalism.

Here’s what struck me recently. During the pandemic while I was working from home (full time with full pay) I decided to get LASIK surgery. It cost $4K, but I qualified for a zero interest loan from CareCredit as long as I paid it off within two years. Which I did of course.