What is Poverty? ( Archived) (85)

It's having beer, but no salt and vinegar chips.

There are a couple of ways to define this, although the U.S. government has a grid of annual amounts for singles/families categorizing "poverty". It varies from state to state, city to city, as well. For example, in my region of Oregon, $2300.00 per month gross/1870.00 net, is more than adequate for a single person. This is based largely on housing, which averages about 605.00 per month for a fair enough one bedroom house or apartment. This is roughly 33% of the net, which has long been the recommendation. However, in Portland, a one bedroom apartment is now about $1600.00 per month, a one-bedroom house is close or at $2000.00, so $2300.00 a month would be severely inadequate. It is not an exact science. Also, poverty can be a perception and a lifestyle. For instance, one can avoid financial problems simply by being careful and not so eager to buy everything in site, have expensive cell phones and cable services, go out all the time, buy clothes at Barneys or Eddie Bauer or Saks, etc... Much of our own success or poverty comes from how we conduct the finances we do have.

poverty.....for me is.....chasing the cat around the garden trying to get the mouse it caught.....sometimes i win sometimes i lose but hey...who,s complaining.....

It's funny what people equate to poverty. In my childhood I have to say we were living in poverty. Amazing as I grew up in the heart of New York City, Manhattan to be exact. You learn to survive. Things like old playing cards placed in your shoe to cover the hole in the sole. or jumping the turnstyles to get onto a subway train before the door closes. Or walking a few miles downtown to Bloomingdales and opening taxicab doors for the swells for tips. I've eaten sandwiches out of garbage cans. We were on welfare and at school there were 2 lines in the cafeteria. One was for kids like me who got free lunch. I guess that made it easier for the cashier but it didn't spare the poor kids the stigma. We weren't allowed to have a TV because that was considered a luxury so we had to hide it in the closet when the investigator from the welfare dept came around. They weren't obligated to announce their visit but there was a network on our block and the moment Mr. Immagute set foot on our block the word went out and everybody on welfare knew he was there. ha ha funny, they thought they were so clever.

I've had ketchup spaghetti a few times.