Food Stamps

A recent New York Times article has examined the cycle of poverty, and just how difficult it can be. They have found that being poor isn’t a case of laziness, but a lack of opportunities for enough people. And when linked to another New York Times piece about Paul Ryan’s recent case of “Irish Amnesia”, the truth about poverty and how it affects food stamps becomes startlingly clear.

Cycle of Poverty

Congressman Paul Ryan was recently quoted as saying, “We have this tailspin of culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning the value and the culture of work.” When caught out with these words, he excused it as being “inarticulate”, but the damage had already been done: Ryan cemented his reputation as somebody who has a low opinion of the poor, but looks the other way when the wealthy accumulate their riches off the backs of others, or by inheritances.

The trouble is, Ryan’s argument is not only completely off base (just ask anyone who’s stuck in the cycle of poverty what they’d give to break out of it), but worded slickly enough that it can cause others to take it for the truth.

It’s not.

Being part of the poor portion of the United States isn’t a punishment for laziness; if it were, there would be a lot more poor people than there already are. And while nobody could call Paul Ryan lazy or poor, the fact is he didn’t earn his riches the way he preaches; he married into it.

Locked In and Trying to Break Out

It’s difficult to point at any one thing and say that’s the cause for people being poor not because it doesn’t exist, but because poverty is such a complex process. One can point to statistics as a way of trying to explain poverty, like how over 50 percent of $9/hr-or-less earners are 25 or older, or 41 percent of low-wage workers having been in college (compared to 29 percent in just 2000).

Or one can try and explain poverty from a socio-historical aspect, such as how the manufacturing industry has dried up in America, and migrated to Asian countries where the labor and product prices are cheaper.

Industries like Detroit’s auto manufacturing, and other factories, enjoyed a brief boom period before succumbing to human greed and mistakes, and the aforementioned cheaper Asian labor. While these industries were peaking, they enabled workers to glide into the middle class without needing specialized education, but that’s gone now and poverty has taken its place.

And once workers get stuck in poverty, it can be almost impossible to lift themselves out because the opportunities just aren’t there anymore. Further, what was commonly thought to be the route to the American dream (hard work, dedication, discipline and sacrifice) has had its curtain pulled back to reveal that it’s more about lucky bounces and getting in with the right people.

Politicians and public figures like Paul Ryan would like the public to believe that being poor and on food stamps is the result of just not working hard enough, but the reality is a lot more complex than that. Poverty is a complex, multi-faceted equation, and those stuck in it aren’t usually there because they’re lazy.