Wednesday, May 27, 2009
The Paradoxes of Poverty
There have been two really good articles about poverty in recent weeks. Both have direct bearing on church life.
First is “The High Cost of Being Poor.” When I was in grad school, in pseudo-poverty, my wife and I would often remark on how expensive it was to be poor. If you are poor, you cannot afford reliable transportation. If you own a car, you cannot pay for important car repairs which mean that you have more serious mechanical problems later. If your car breaks down on the way to work, you may be fired. Because you are fired, you cannot pay your water bill. When your water bill gets cut off, you have to pay a reconnect fee. If you cannot pay the fee, your landlord may kick you out if paying for utilities is part of the condition of your rent. And on and on it goes. You wind up paying more.
I remember walking outside one day and looking at our balding tires and realizing that we were one blow-out away from financial ruin. I couldn’t afford $60 to replace them.
I read a comment in which someone said, “that may be true, but poor people in the U.S. are much better off than poor people elsewhere.” I think this is a basic misunderstanding about poverty. Being poor is not just about being dollar-poor. It is about structures which make it difficult for people to participate in society. Poor people both in Bolivia and in Birmingham might not have access to a car. But someone in Bolivia can ride their bicycle on the road without being mowed down by an SUV. Moreover, the local market is not disproportionately expensive compared to the market in the suburbs. I’m not arguing that it’s better to be poor in La Paz than in Birmingham. But there are factors here which conspire to prevent people from climbing out of poverty. Sales tax on groceries is one good example. Industrious, hard-working people do climb out of poverty in both places. But plenty of industrious, hard-working people cannot.
The other article is about poverty and giving. People who work in churches and nonprofits already know this, but it’s nice to see some research to back it up. Poor people are more generous than rich people. The lowest quintile give an average of more than 4% of their income. That percentage drops as income increases. The wealthiest quintile give little more than 2% of their income.
I think the article misses an important idea about why the poor may be more generous. There’s a passage in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in which Francie has a ritual of smelling and stirring her coffee, and then pouring it slowly down the sink. When her aunt asks her mother why she doesn’t stop her, she replies, “if that’s what makes her feel rich, then let her do with it what she wants.” I think generosity is one thing that makes us feel rich. If you are poor, being generous may be one of the few ways that you can exercise power in your world.
