Is poverty a choice? In the sense of this question, no. I do not think people choose to be poor. I believe that the power of circumstances is significant in affecting the lives of all individuals, and many have a harder lot than others for damn sure. However, in another sense, maybe poverty IS a choice. People generally never choose to be poor and definitely not to be born poor, but maybe they also fail to make the difficult choices necessary NOT to be poor. For example, I can almost promise you that there is food and shelter in different places in America that costs a fraction of what it does in an urban environment like Boston. And there are also cities, neighborhoods, and social circles in which all sorts of work pays a lot better than in others. Maybe I am young and deluded, but I am alluding to a complete BREAKAWAY being a potential solution to the stagnant, ever-present poverty of families like MacDonald's. Of course, it would be ridiculously difficult to make a move somewhere unfamiliar, maybe even life-threatening with eight or nine children, but my question to people who seem to be rotting in ghettos has always been: Why do you stay? Does it not seem like somewhere, somehow, life is better than this; safer than this?
Maybe I lack an understanding of the community ties that keep people who are suffering inert in their unique kind of misery. Personally, having seen what I've seen in my life, if the best that I could possibly do somewhere was not nearly good enough to provide an adequate way of life for myself and my children, I'd leave and seek a new promised land, so to speak. For people in America with available transportation and no oppressive dictatorship to keep them boxed in (like the North Koreans,) taking a leap out of demoralizing poverty towards the unknown somewhere in the countryside or in another state does not seem all that bad in my mind. I appreciate the enormous courage, determination and perseverance that it takes to break with the familiar and face the unknown squarely, but what is worse than having your children constantly feel inferior to others and risk death in the wild streets? I decided to tackle this question from a rather unique perspective, and I hope you guys can appreciate it for what it is: an attempt to roll with a train of thought that took me in some interesting directions.
It is a great view. Hey, it costs to much to live here- let's move. I'll circle back around to this argument. You bring up something that is difficult for many people to consider: moving away from family, history, home. Even as I type this I know that in theory I want to live in so many places, but also know that I will likely live in Chicago the rest of my life. Why? Parents, family, friends, the places and spaces that know me and I know them. Forget me for a second, to move would mean that my wife and children would be distanced from the people that they know and love as well.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the cheaper-place-to-live-let's-go argument. A cheaper place to live likely translates to a lower wage being paid to workers. In our most recent contract negotiations people kept arguing the point that teachers in Indiana among other places were paid 19% less than teachers in Chicago for the same work. Well, guess what? The cost-of-living was also 19% lower in that particular city of Indiana.
I want to live in a place where if I bake bread I will exchange it for you educating my child, you educating a doctor's child could be exchanged for him fixing up your son when he is broken.