But whatever has happened to the war on poverty? I look around these days, and don't see a bit of what I have thought poverty was. Of course, my perception of poverty may be a bit different after living in South America and seeing how other people live.
Poverty in Bolivia was not the absence of cable TV, or going to Let's Help for a free lunch as your food stamps run out at the end of the month. Poverty wasn't hoping for a government agency to pay your electric/gas bill. Poverty wasn't having a $2000 dollar plasma TV hooked up through an $800 Home Entertainment Center.
Poverty in Bolivia was taking your children down to the local market and digging through the putrid, rotting thrown away fruit in the hopes of finding something edible. Poverty meant that your eight year old child would spend the evenings down at the closest intersection hopping up on the hoods of cars as they stopped at the stoplight, in the hopes of earning a peso (about 16¢) for washing your windshield. Poverty meant that if you could afford the six pesos (about $1) that the local version of a value meal cost, then you could eat some of the fries, take a couple bites out of the hamburger, than take the rest of it home to feed your family. Poverty meant trying to figure out how to take care of your entire family on the equivalent of less than $100/month.
So what did happen to the war on poverty? Who are our poor? Why are they poor?
I saw a sign on a Burger King restaurant last week requesting applications, stating that they were starting at up to $9/hr! What type of person can NOT work at a place like Burger King? Can some of the people who are currently considered living in poverty work at Burger King? How about other jobs around Topeka? Why, if our unemployment rate is low, do so many people live “in poverty”? Or are other employers simply not paying as much as Burger King?
I understand why a small portion of the population could be considered as “living in poverty”. But for the rest of us, what excuse is there? And what can we, as a people, do to eliminate as many of these excuses as we can?
Somebody, please... I want to know!!! I'll be giving my excuses over the next several weeks, but I would like to hear your opinion and more importantly, your solutions!
Poverty in Bolivia was taking your children down to the local market and digging through the putrid, rotting thrown away fruit in the hopes of finding something edible. Poverty meant that your eight year old child would spend the evenings down at the closest intersection hopping up on the hoods of cars as they stopped at the stoplight, in the hopes of earning a peso (about 16¢) for washing your windshield. Poverty meant that if you could afford the six pesos (about $1) that the local version of a value meal cost, then you could eat some of the fries, take a couple bites out of the hamburger, than take the rest of it home to feed your family. Poverty meant trying to figure out how to take care of your entire family on the equivalent of less than $100/month.
So what did happen to the war on poverty? Who are our poor? Why are they poor?
I saw a sign on a Burger King restaurant last week requesting applications, stating that they were starting at up to $9/hr! What type of person can NOT work at a place like Burger King? Can some of the people who are currently considered living in poverty work at Burger King? How about other jobs around Topeka? Why, if our unemployment rate is low, do so many people live “in poverty”? Or are other employers simply not paying as much as Burger King?
I understand why a small portion of the population could be considered as “living in poverty”. But for the rest of us, what excuse is there? And what can we, as a people, do to eliminate as many of these excuses as we can?
Somebody, please... I want to know!!! I'll be giving my excuses over the next several weeks, but I would like to hear your opinion and more importantly, your solutions!
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