A constant theme found throughout Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed, Kenan Heise’s Book of the Poor and Linda Tirado’s  “This is Why Poor People’s Bad Decisions Make Perfect Sense”, was the dissatisfaction of barely getting by or merely surviving. Though short and simple, one of the most profound quotes that resonated with this idea was in chapter eleven of Book of the Poor when one of the women stated, “We don’t want to just exist” (loc. 783). The amount of data we were presented contradicted her desires and reinforced the fact that a majority of the people in poverty are barely surviving.

Homeless people and people in poverty consistently find themselves on the receiving end of unfair judgment and scorn. Rarely do we understand the limited options that people in poverty are left with. When they are faced with the decision to starve, panhandle or steal, they will choose the option that allows them to live another day. No human being should die as a result of poverty or homelessness.

Reading the statistics in chapter four of Heise’s book were shocking, especially when it stated that over one hundred thousand people die as a result of poverty a year. It is a testament that our system is unbelievably flawed. Reading about individual’s lives and their experiences with poverty and homelessness is intriguing and offers a  perspective that data fails to depict accurately.  Their stories and the obstacles they are forced to overcome sends the message that despite constant efforts to remove themselves from poverty, they are met with even more obstacles and dilemmas. At what point do you decide that escaping poverty is an unrealistic goal? At what point does poverty become a way of life and living in a motel “a piece of the American dream”?