The day to day struggles that poverty causes in people’s lives are incredibly hard for people who are not poor to understand. The common trope that they are lazy and unmotivated is so utterly wrong. The amount of time and energy, for example, it takes to go grocery shopping when you do not have a car is staggering. At the same time, you may well have to buy higher priced and/or lower quality food, and put up with “s*&^” that white people or middle class or upper class people would never put up with. The amount of time it takes to get to work taking public transportation or to get rides from friends is incredible. You also end up working jobs that those same other people would never want their own children to have, except for a few years in High School.

© words by Dan DeMarle 2017