Poor in America

After living in the U.S.A. for 5 months in a condition of economic lack, I feel at least partially qualified to offer an opinion of what it’s like to be…

poor in America.

You see, I’ve not always been poor. I’ve never been what I’d consider rich, but prior to my becoming an expat in Costa Rica, beginning around 2002…

I did have fleeting occasions of moneyed-ness.

Over a decade living in Costa Rica cured me of that pursuit…

the pursuit of happiness via money.

However, now I find myself right back in it…and I feel a bit unconditioned for the exercise.

Wasn’t so in Costa Rica. There you can be poor and happy. People don’t look down on you. Like you’re some kind of oddball that needs to be kept at arm’s length.

They don’t give you that “get a job” look.

I don’t have a job. I’m an entrepreneur. I’ve been one for the past 20 years…

It’s been a roller-coaster ride.

Right now I’m definitely experiencing a stomach-turning dip.

I do still harbor faint expectations of climbing out at some point, but while I’m down here, I thought I’d give you all a little glimpse of what it’s like to be a poor bastard…

Just in case you’ve never experienced it for yourselves.

Luckily, even though I don’t have a car, getting around in Portland, Oregon, isn’t so hard due to the stellar public transport system.

I couldn’t imagine living without a car in the U.S. in a place that didn’t have that.

Even so, getting around can be a drag. Waiting on the bus is, well, waiting. And who wants to do that, especially in America.

And if it’s raining and cold, it makes the waiting even less pleasant.

But, I guess that’s something those of you with cars wouldn’t understand.

It also makes it a bit burdensome to bring the groceries home.

It does, however, give one an opportunity to see up close and personal what it’s like to be poor in America.

You can read it on the faces of your fellow passengers.

The quiet, well, here in Portland, not always so quiet, desperation…

tinged with anger…

and frustration.

And we’re taught, conditioned, in the U.S. to strive to have what others have…

to covet.

Never-mind what the bible says about that…we’re talking capitalism for god’s sake!

And capitalism runs off the fuel of covetousness.

So, the poor are condemned to covet what they can’t grasp.

To just sit and stare out the window, blankly, at all that stuff…until depression sets in.

The poor here are a different breed than where I came from…my Colombian wife sees it clearly as well…

They’re a harder-edged breed than Latin American poor…and an angrier one.

They’re called on TV, the dependency class. And who wants to be called that…or even actually be it.

Do the folks at Fox News have any idea how it makes a poor person feel to be branded as a worthless “dependent?”

So, they have good reason to be angry…

You’re not welcome here…that’s the message. You’re a reject…a loser. What’s wrong with you? What are you doing here? Get out? Not welcome…the bathroom in here is only for paying customers and you obviously can’t…just look at you!

Those are the messages WE get.

In fact, from the moment I stepped foot back on U.S. soil, that’s sort of the feeling I’ve gotten.

I don’t know, but maybe it’s time to rethink things?

Now, I’m sure someone will read this and think, wait a minute, our poor have it better off than anywhere else on the planet.

Well, that’s only if being “better off” is measured materially, which is, unfortunately, how everything is measured in a capitalistic society like the U.S.A.

But, from an emotional, or happiness, point of view…

according to my observations over the last months, they have it much worse.

image credit: zargoman via Compfight cc