Many people prefer to place the responsibility for poverty or homelessness on the individuals. While they are not necessarily unsympathetic to their plight, they often blame the poor for their situation. I myself have seen examples of these attitudes in Redlands. For my capstone project last semester, I surveyed the people of Redlands regarding their attitudes on panhandling. Many, though not all, of the respondents suggested that the homeless were more than capable of changing their situation if they tried. Some examples of these responses were as follows:
“…a lot of the homeless people don’t want to change”
“They just want to live on hand outs and do their own thing and not better themselves.”
“…majority of people that are homeless choose to remain so”
“…they lack the drive to pick themselves up, work and earn their keep.”
Yet several of the readings for this week, especially Nickel and Dimed and This Is Why Poor People’s Bad Decisions Make Perfect Sense, do a great deal to combat the idea that escape from poverty is simple. Alongside discussing the exhaustion and struggles the working poor face, Ehrenreich shows that many of the people she encounters want to escape their circumstances but are trapped. Those in the cleaning service she works in, for example, might be able to increase their pay if they went on strike. However, they cannot afford to go without a paycheck for the time it would take to force a change. In This Is Why Poor People’s Bad Decisions Make Perfect Sense, Tirado argues that for those in poverty, “the very act of being poor means [they] will never not be poor.” She points out that many people like her cannot have a bank account, which limits their ability to obtain housing, or other necessities. She shows that many positions require employees to look good, but the image required to obtain said job cannot be maintained without it, and that things which those in more privileged positions view as free, are not for those who must face the hidden costs head on. The descriptions of the sacrifices these individuals make, and the hard work they do simply to maintain their existence, does much to discredit the misconception that poverty is a symptom of laziness. Often, the poor are forced to make decisions which keep them in poverty, simply because they have no better alternatives.