Being poor is knowing exactly how much everything costs.

[kpete]

Being Poor
September 3, 2005
John Scalzi


Being poor is knowing exactly how much everything costs.

Being poor is getting angry at your kids for asking for all the crap they see on TV.

Being poor is having to keep buying $800 cars because they’re what you can afford, and then having the cars break down on you, because there’s not an $800 car in America that’s worth a damn.

Being poor is hoping the toothache goes away.

Being poor is knowing your kid goes to friends’ houses but never has friends over to yours.

Being poor is going to the restroom before you get in the school lunch line so your friends will be ahead of you and won’t hear you say “I get free lunch” when you get to the cashier.

Being poor is living next to the freeway.

Being poor is coming back to the car with your children in the back seat, clutching that box of Raisin Bran you just bought and trying to think of a way to make the kids understand that the box has to last.

Being poor is wondering if your well-off sibling is lying when he says he doesn’t mind when you ask for help.

Being poor is off-brand toys.

Being poor is a heater in only one room of the house.

Being poor is knowing you can’t leave $5 on the coffee table when your friends are around.

Being poor is hoping your kids don’t have a growth spurt.

Being poor is stealing meat from the store, frying it up before your mom gets home and then telling her she doesn’t have make dinner tonight because you’re not hungry anyway.

Being poor is Goodwill underwear.

Being poor is not enough space for everyone who lives with you.

Being poor is feeling the glued soles tear off your supermarket shoes when you run around the playground.

Being poor is your kid’s school being the one with the 15-year-old textbooks and no air conditioning.

Being poor is thinking $8 an hour is a really good deal.

Being poor is relying on people who don’t give a damn about you.

Being poor is an overnight shift under florescent lights.

Being poor is finding the letter your mom wrote to your dad, begging him for the child support.

Being poor is a bathtub you have to empty into the toilet.

Being poor is stopping the car to take a lamp from a stranger’s trash.

Being poor is making lunch for your kid when a cockroach skitters over the bread, and you looking over to see if your kid saw.

Being poor is believing a GED actually makes a goddamned difference.

Being poor is people angry at you just for walking around in the mall.

Being poor is not taking the job because you can’t find someone you trust to watch your kids.

Being poor is the police busting into the apartment right next to yours.

Being poor is not talking to that girl because she’ll probably just laugh at your clothes.

Being poor is hoping you’ll be invited for dinner.

Being poor is a sidewalk with lots of brown glass on it.

Being poor is people thinking they know something about you by the way you talk.

Being poor is needing that 35-cent raise.

Being poor is your kid’s teacher assuming you don’t have any books in your home.

Being poor is six dollars short on the utility bill and no way to close the gap.

Being poor is crying when you drop the mac and cheese on the floor.

Being poor is knowing you work as hard as anyone, anywhere.

Being poor is people surprised to discover you’re not actually stupid.

Being poor is people surprised to discover you’re not actually lazy.

Being poor is a six-hour wait in an emergency room with a sick child asleep on your lap.

Being poor is never buying anything someone else hasn’t bought first.

Being poor is picking the 10 cent ramen instead of the 12 cent ramen because that’s two extra packages for every dollar.

Being poor is having to live with choices you didn’t know you made when you were 14 years old.

Being poor is getting tired of people wanting you to be grateful.

Being poor is knowing you’re being judged.

Being poor is a box of crayons and a $1 coloring book from a community center Santa.

Being poor is checking the coin return slot of every soda machine you go by.

Being poor is deciding that it’s all right to base a relationship on shelter.

Being poor is knowing you really shouldn’t spend that buck on a Lotto ticket.

Being poor is hoping the register lady will spot you the dime.

Being poor is feeling helpless when your child makes the same mistakes you did, and won’t listen to you beg them against doing so.

Being poor is a cough that doesn’t go away.

Being poor is making sure you don’t spill on the couch, just in case you have to give it back before the lease is up.

Being poor is a $200 paycheck advance from a company that takes $250 when the paycheck comes in.

Being poor is four years of night classes for an Associates of Art degree.

Being poor is a lumpy futon bed.

Being poor is knowing where the shelter is.

Being poor is people who have never been poor wondering why you choose to be so.

Being poor is knowing how hard it is to stop being poor.

Being poor is seeing how few options you have.

Being poor is running in place.

Being poor is people wondering why you didn’t leave.



http://whatever.scalzi.com/2005/09/03/being-poor/

[Spitfire of ATJ]

1. Being poor is thinking $12 an hour puts you in the Middle Class.

[DebJ]

2. So many remembered heartbreaks here bringing up my kids.

Being poor is knowing exactly how much everything costs.
Being poor is having to keep buying $800 cars because they’re what you can afford, and then having the cars break down on you, because there’s not an $800 car in America that’s worth a damn.
Being poor is hoping the toothache goes away.
Being poor is knowing your kid goes to friends’ houses but never has friends over to yours (and ZERO birthday parties ever for either child; still makes me cry.)
Being poor is hoping your kids don’t have a growth spurt. (But my son grew to be 7' tall).
Being poor is six dollars short on the utility bill and no way to close the gap.
Being poor is crying when you drop the mac and cheese on the floor.
Being poor is knowing you’re being judged. (Stopped going to church couldn't stand the snide looks and remarks.)
Being poor is deciding that it’s all right to base a relationship on shelter.
Being poor is knowing you really shouldn’t spend that buck on a Lotto ticket.
Being poor is four years of night classes for an Associates of Art degree (and 35 years for the BS degree).
Being poor is knowing how hard it is to stop being poor.
Being poor is seeing how few options you have.
Being poor is running in place.
I'm a hair better now; my daughter is doing very well. But my heart bleeds everyday because my son has bipolar disorder and is forced into the system of poverty with no hope. Since he can't escape it, and I can't help him, the pain remains.

[closeupready]

7. Sending hugs your way!

[DebJ]

16. thanks.

[heaven05]

13. wow

the church one got to me. sad isn't it. all are reality though.

[Skidmore]

3. So many memories from a lifetime

of being poor or fighting to get out of poverty. And just when I thought I had done that, they changed the rules. This post makes me so sad.

[PeaceNikki]

4. Amen. Thanks for posting this. Some people are very out of touch.

[JDPriestly]

5. Thanks. We have to make it better.

Being poor is waiting until the restaurant closes so that you sneak a few bites from its dumpster.

[proReality]

6. Being poor is knowing 101 ways to fix pasta and

how to get 2 meals for a family of 4 out of a pound of ground beef.

[LiberalArkie]

8. And buying and living on powdered milk and quart jars of peanut butter.

For Sunday meals was mac & cheese.
I probably had 5% body fat back then though.

[Art_from_Ark]

21. We had powdered milk at my house

It's good for cooking, but the taste as a stand-alone drink was unpalatable. Occasionally, we were allowed to alter the taste with Carnation Instant Breakfast (when it was on sale).

[canoeist52]

9. Someone should read this aloud, to the millionaires in Congress.

[Oakenshield]

14. You can't shame the shameless.

[Art_from_Ark]

10. I grew up poor, but at least we had a social safety net

thanks to the Great Society

[rickyhall]

11. Being poor is knowing you can't afford a girlfriend.

[heaven05]

12. bravo for effort and truth

[bpositive]

15. Being poor is

Being made fun for your 'bowl' haircut since your mom had to save money somewhere.

Constantly wondering if your going to run out of food- and being constantly nervous.

Wondering why your mom is being told that we can't live in your apartment anymore.

Constantly moving from apartment to apartment - never able to keep friends and constantly having to make new ones.

Growing up poor does not make fond childhood memories.

Growing up poor sucks.

[raydrewoh]

17. being poor means cost of everything

i love this post by kpete, its about time even the middle needs to pay attention , case the only one paycheck away from being poor, unless every one stands up soon make some changes, then we will be doomed.

[Le Taz Hot]

18. And a few I remember:

Being poor is going to school after not having eaten for 2 days and the cafeteria smells making your stomach ache. You're so hungry you just go in the bathroom and cry.

Being poor is cooking your mac and cheese on a sterno can because they turned off your lights and gas for non-payment.

Being poor is moving out in the middle of the night through the kitchen window that faced the alley so the landlord wouldn't call the cops for non-payment of rent.

Being poor is having to sleep on someone's couch, only for a few days, and then trying to find someone else's couch to sleep on so as not to outstay your welcome.

Being poor is hoping you're invited to your friend's house for lunch or dinner so you can eat.

Being poor means slinking off to be by yourself during lunch and recesses at school because you're so beat down you don't want to face anyone.

Being poor means having to put up with your mother's "boyfriends" who, instead of contributing to the household, actually take what few resources you have.

Being poor means not having the means to take your mother to the hospital when she's bleeding out after a miscarriage and having to knock on the stranger neighbor's door at 2:00 in the morning asking them to take you and she to the hospital so she doesn't die.

Being poor means you hope the box of clothes you just got didn't belong to someone from your school and if it did, having to endure the scorn and ridicule of same schoolmates.

Being poor means crying when you get a hole in your tennis shoes only a week after you got them and knowing that you'll have to wear these until Christmas, hoping you'll get another pair. By that time there's more hole than shoe and it's fucking cold!

Being poor means all you have is someone's cast off raincoat for a coat and being so fucking cold every day. You dread recess and lunch so you just find somewhere to huddle and shiver.

Being poor is congratulating yourself at the end of the day for "not crying that day."


Oh yeah, being poor is a blast. Just ask me. And people wondered why, by the time I was a teen, I was angry at the world.

[Rex]

19. Being poor sucks. It limits your options in life.

Being uber rich is the bees knees. It means you have unlimited options in life.

[Lifelong Protester]

20. Thanks for posting even if it brings back

not so good memories of growing up poor.

Being poor is having to talk to bill collectors and telling them your mom is not available to come to the phone.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

22. But, they have cell phones!!!!

[Lunacee_2013]

23. Being poor means you...

divide your Rx into a third of what you're suppose to take because you don't have $345 to get it refilled. Not this month anyway.

Being poor means you know just how much gas it takes to get somewhere. It also means you walk a lot, even if you're disabled and there are no sidewalks.

Being poor means getting embarrassed when you hold up the check-out line because you 1) have to count out several dollars worth of nickels, dimes and pennies and 2) are border line legally blind and cannot afford glasses.

That's not the part that really bothers mean though. The parts that really get to me are seeing people who are even poorer than I am and not being able to help them and having the rich think you hate them and that you're jealous of their wealth, oh and basically comparing you to the nazis. Look, you rich morons, I don't want your life! In fact, I find your life way too over-the-top and sinful (yeah, I said it). The only way into the top 1% is to either be born there or to claw and cheat your way there. There is no readon to have a billion dollars! Not when people are sick and literally dying of hunger.

WTF is wrong with some of us?

[a kennedy]

24. This should be handed out to EVERYONE who thinks the poor are the "takers"....

This just makes my heart hurt.