Perpetual Poverty

Perpetual poverty is a person or family not being able to leave a life of poverty no matter what they do. You may think this is not possible or maybe you are in the same situation. I have lived in this state most my adult life, I have had many jobs with different pay and lived in a few different locations to try and fix it though it never works. Don't get me wrong there are always going to be those few times a year where you feel you have escaped it just to be slammed back to the mud a month or two later.

I have tried to save money for emergencies or to try to save for a few days of fun or something I really wanted or needed, but to no avail. Something always comes up, an unknown bill/debt an eviction from the place you live or just getting fired for being sick. For instance, for the last three years, I have been trying to save to fix my teeth. This, of course, is really expensive so I started putting money away from every paycheck. I had a good amount saved and was almost ready to get it done when I lost my job due to a sickness I can't control (for info on that see my article 'Diagnosed'). Upon losing my job, the money I had saved automatically goes to rent, food bills, kids without hesitation. All of a sudden I am back to the beginning, with no money saved and desperately hunting for a job.

That is an example of perpetual poverty, something less common in Canada than the States, but is still present. Now you would think it would be as simple as getting a new job and start saving again, but no, another sideswipe happens and my doctors tell me I am no longer physically able to work, and with no training in fields that allow me to just sit and type or set appointments I am now forced to go to disability. Rhe kicker, it takes anywhere from six months to a year to get approved where I live, so now I sit back in poverty until I get a decision. This is how you end up staying in poverty; this is how the world keeps you there.

Now my case is not even remotely close to one of the worse cases out there, first, there are the homeless on the streets. Mind you some of them keep themselves there by choice or by drug us—this is purposely being perpetually in poverty. Then there are the people on the streets that have lost everything due to actions of their own or actions of others they trusted, and due to being on the streets no one pays them attention or helps them because of that situation. This would be the society pushing them into poverty and when no one will help this puts them in perpetual poverty.

Then there are groups that are put there by their own government, veterans, Natives, and African Americans. These groups—their government failed them by either not keeping their promises to that group or being racially discriminative and sticking them into terrible situations with no clean drinking water or areas of extremely high crime rates. By this the government pushes poverty onto them—this, in my opinion, is the worst of all. Mainly because you are taught from a young age to trust your government and they will help and provide for you in your time of need. These cases prove otherwise, with no clean drinking water on reserves making native people have to live in shambles and forced to buy their water. Then there are the cops instead of helping the communities in ruin decide to arrest people for no reason, marking them as criminals and ruining their potentials for a brighter future. And the Veterans, people who fought for their countries and were promised the government would look after them when they came home, and the government does nothing and lets a vast majority rot on the streets. This is government induced perpetual poverty, where there is a solution but the government refuse to help.

It is truly disgusting the world in which we live—how can we call it equal living when the people with all the money refuse to help the people with none? There are more than five people in the world who have enough money to literally clothe, home and feed the world and still have billions left over but refuse to help anyone. It is these types of people that keep the lower class in the lower class with no hope of progressing further. When there are constant debates on whether or not people working at a lower end job deserve a living wage, there is a problem; everyone deserves to live comfortably especially if you pull a nine to five job no matter what it is. There should be no such thing as being perpetually impoverished. We should be able to all live with each other on similar footing and hold our respective heads high. Instead, we are in a society where we judge others for how much they have in their bank accounts or treat people differently because they have hit a hard part in their lives. This needs to stop. People need to start respecting people for just being able to get up in the morning with a smile on their faces ready for another day of facing the world head-on.

In closing, don't ever be ashamed of where you stand in life as there are thousands that stand with you. Your government may have given up on you but show that you can get through it by holding your head high, because we are not going anywhere. Stay strong everyone, life will get better. When you feel you have hit rock bottom remember there is only one way to go after that and it is going up. Much love to you all whoever reads this.