Linda Tirado's book Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America started off as an online post. She'd seen a zillion variations on the question (sometimes well-meaning, sometimes victim-blamey): "Why do people in poverty make poor decisions?" The assumption, usually, being that "poor decisions" are the cause of the poverty. She wrote a response that wound up going viral. Here's a slice, but I recommend reading the whole thing:
I make a lot of poor financial decisions. None of them matter, in the long term. I will never not be poor, so what does it matter if I don't pay a thing and a half this week instead of just one thing? It's not like the sacrifice will result in improved circumstances; the thing holding me back isn't that I blow five bucks at Wendy's. It's that now that I have proven that I am a Poor Person that is all that I am or ever will be. It is not worth it to me to live a bleak life devoid of small pleasures so that one day I can make a single large purchase. I will never have large pleasures to hold on to. There's a certain pull to live what bits of life you can while there's money in your pocket, because no matter how responsible you are you will be broke in three days anyway. When you never have enough money it ceases to have meaning. I imagine having a lot of it is the same thing.
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Ironically, her post about poverty led to a gofundme account that raised more than her annual income, followed by a book contract. (It also led to the usual amateur sleuths attempting to prove that she was a fake who was too articulate to be poor, and assorted moralists wanting to play pin-the-blame-on-the-poor-person.) Tirado is trenchant, funny, and frequently profane with her observations:
Poverty is expensive. When there's no supermarket in your neighborhood, you pay jacked-up prices at the corner store. When you don't have insurance, the sky's the limit on medical bills. When you don't have enough savings for first and last month's rent, you pay the weekly rate at a hotel, which costs far more than rent on the apartment you can't get. When your bank account dips below minimum balance, the bank charges a fee, which makes your checks bounce, which leads to more fees.
Poverty is time-consuming and exhausting. Try holding down two jobs, both just a couple of miles from home, when you don't have a working car.
The indignities are soul-killing and unnecessary. Tirado's metric for judging the awesomeness of a job: do you have to ask your boss's permission to use the bathroom? She also has a few special words about bosses who demand that you smile no matter what. And Tirado has a special disdain (as I do) for the grocery police: people who can spot a SNAP card across the store, and immediately descend to stick their noses into your cart to judge whether your food is humble enough. Because heaven forbid you should allow yourself a sugary treat. (Meanwhile, she notes, an executive can treat a client to a pricey meal and write it off as a "business expense.")
So much is beyond your control. When Tirado was pregnant, her apartment was destroyed in a flood, they lost everything, and they were stuck living in a weekly motel. (Naturally, this resulted in many lectures about how she should have known better than to have a child under those circumstances.) And she has a couple of Kafkaesque stories: when they moved from Ohio to Utah, they told Ohio to stop their SNAP benefits, but for some reason Ohio didn't. Utah couldn't issue them anything because they were getting benefits from Ohio, and multiple calls by Tirado and the caseworker got no results. Then Ohio discovered they were getting benefits while residing in another state - which is considered fraud. It got straightened out eventually, but remember that when you hear stories about rampant welfare fraud.
Sometimes a bad long-term decision has a short-term benefit. The payday loan industry has been widely condemned as predatory. Tirado doesn't disagree, but notes that she's used them on occasion, because a real bank isn't going to loan out $300 to someone with a minimum-wage job. (She's also not convinced that real banks are any less predatory.) And she waxes lyrical about her worst habit:
I smoke. It's expensive. It's also the best option. You see, I am always, always exhausted. It's a stimulant. When I am too tired to walk one more step, I can smoke and go for another hour. When I am enraged and beaten down and incapable of accomplishing one more thing, I can smoke and I feel a little better, just for a minute. It is the only relaxation I am allowed. It is not a good decision, but it is the only one that I have access to. It is the only thing I have found that keeps me from collapsing or exploding.
Bad decisions cut across all class lines; the consequences don't. Rich people get drunk, but they can afford a cab home and don't get arrested for "public intoxication" while walking. Rich people do drugs, but get sent to rehab instead of prison. Rich people make bad financial decisions, but can walk away unscathed. (How many times has Donald Trump or Dubya Bush had a business go bust?) Sometimes they can even find ways to make the taxpayers foot the bill. Rich people have sex on occasions when it's a bad idea, but they have easier access to contraception and abortion (or, in the case of John Edwards, an employee to claim paternity). Combine any of those decisions with poverty, and then it's seen as a character flaw. Sometimes a simple mistake (Tirado parked in a place that got her truck towed) can spiral into financial disaster.
One bad decision that Tirado discussed: poverty discourages becoming politically engaged. Frequent moves and lack of transportation may keep someone from keeping registration current, much less voting. Election day is a weekday, and even if your employer complies with the law for letting you take time off work, you may not be able to afford it. Even if you have the energy to fight your way past the obstacles and bring 27 photo ID's, it's hard to convince yourself that your political participation means anything when the game's so thoroughly rigged in favor of the wealthy donors. Tirado feels passionately about bread-and-butter issues, but has no patience for issues that she doesn't see affecting her life, such as campaign finance reform or global warming. I immediately thought: campaign finance is the reason we keep electing the Screw-The Poor Brigade, and as for global warming affecting poverty - hello, Hurricane Katrina? But I do see where she's coming from: as with other decisions in her life, thinking beyond the short-term feels like a luxury.
Tirado doesn't really go into solutions; her purpose here is simply to give non-poor people a look at the world from her point of view. Fifteen years ago in Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich (who wrote an intro for Tirado's book) laid out what's needed: a living wage, strong unions, universal health care, progressive taxation, and enforcement of the laws around wage theft and worker safety. The laws mean zip if the employers know they won't be enforced. One issue that's become more common since then is the rise of irregular scheduling and on-call work, where an employee has to be available at a moment's notice, but is not guaranteed any minimum number of hours. This can make it impossible to hold a second job or go to school, and we need to find a way to make it more expensive for employers to exploit their workers than not. Eight states and DC now require employers to pay a minimum number of hours per shift, even if they are sent home early, and there have been other efforts around giving employees more control of their schedules.
Tirado ends with an "Open letter to rich people" that's worth the price of the hardcover all by itself, a pitch-perfect parody of all the "helpful advice" she's gotten on her poor decisions. It's not too late to stop the destructive cycle of feeling entitled and teaching your kids to feel entitled. Also, for the love of God, TIP!
On to Top Comments!
From John Sitzman:
God and Scott Walker: A smackdown worthy of being seen by many eyes. Please consider it! (Note from Tara: comment is by the inimitable Puddytat, in Matthew Stone's diary Scott Walker's incredible e-mail blast.)
From
gharlane:
The diary.
The comment.
The text:
Let's face it: Simba was no angel (29+ / 0-)
He was out of his neighborhood at night, didn't show ID, and ran after being shot at.
Although never convicted, he was known to authorities, and was a suspect in several killings. He had over a dozen children with various partners, none of whom he ever legally married. He never held a full-time job.
There are rumors he tested positive for traces of giraffe and zebra, also known as "Zee".
by Rock Golf on Wed Jul 29, 2015 at 07:34:03 AM PDT
*
(To be clear, the lion's name was actually Cecil, but still....)
Nominated for pure, off-the-charts, wicked, almost unbearable irony, which, like all good irony, speaks a larger truth.
From
Steven Payne:
Comment from Gooserock.
From
your humble (if antisocial) diarist:
In Hunter's diary Marco Rubio: Look at all this outrage over a dead loin instead of Planned Parenthood dead babies, Downpuppy spotted a typo that was so funny, I'm kinda sorry Hunter fixed it.
Top Mojo, courtesy of mik:
1) Rioting is what they call protesting. by Save the Mitten +522
2) A good lion w/a gun could've prevented this (n/t) by Trix +362
3) Bullshit by Tracker +221
4) I can't believe he's upset by hnichols +210
5) Preparing for riots? Weren't the police "prepar... by TDDVandy +173
6) I'm so sick of this: by gooderservice +153
7) Totally agree: by gooderservice +141
8) What goes on in the minds by Pirogue +138
9) This phrase troubles me: by Raggedy Ann +131
10) Someday Dr. Palmer's grandchildren by jayden +129
10) Palmer's George Constanza-Like excuse Rolodex by Dirk McQuigley +129
12) If people out there think by elwior +127
13) He's full of it - so utterly full ot it. by Jacoby Jonze +124
14) HRC thinks we are idiots. by Victor Ward +120
15) Important detail missed. by Lib Dem FoP +117
16) Dumber(than)DumbShit got in trouble before by FoundingFatherDAR +116
17) we shall overcomb? by bubbanomics +115
18) Sexual harrassment too. by Desert Rose +114
19) He's upset, poor fellow by Crider +111
20) Just for clarity by manneckdesign +106
20) Anything from HRC on KXL short of abject apology by Albanius +106
22) Edit: Even if you understand what they're saying, by Save the Mitten +101
23) Yes, the right to arm bears....er, lions. by hnichols +100
24) EXACTLY by TrueBlueMajority +99
25) There needs top be a 24hr release rule by aboutmri +98
26) And the lion was used to people by ivorybill +97
27) Oh, he's good! by Lsands1950 +95
28) Paging Tina Fey!! by SallyCat +93
28) Sadly, not regressing. This is America. by zenbassoon +93
30) No way he regrets it. by Leap Year +92
30) Bernie 2016: Almost as radical as the Pope. n/t by TheLeftistheCenter +92
Picture quilt, courtesy of jotter:
