Hard work and self discipline is the way out of poverty. Everyone who has achieved even modest success knows that. But what some have overlooked is the availability of jobs in impoverished areas. Small rural towns, small towns in the Rust Belt and Appalachia or in the deep south hold little or no opportunity for middle class jobs, let alone entry level jobs.
Whenever a Conservative proffers the answer to poverty as "get a job", I'd challenge them to think about the chances of getting that job in some of the forgotten areas of this country.
Of course, that same smug Conservative would say "just move to where the jobs are then!" Try selling a house in an already depressed market. Who will buy it at a fair price if there's nothing in that town to begin with? Try moving a family, uprooting children from schools, churches and friends to take a stab at the unknown someplace else. There are a lot of factors overlooked in the "just move to where the jobs are" meme.
You have more excuses than the Kennedys have cousins.
Have you seen this?
1. For a real-world perspective on the American ethic, find the Alan Shepard book, “Scratch Beginnings, in which the author recounts his own social experiment, at age 24, starting out at the lowest rung of the economic ladder. The question: could he conquer poverty in one year at his best efforts?
2. He left his home with nothing but a tarp, sleeping bag, an empty gym bag, the clothes on his back, and $25. The went to Charleston, South CarolinaÂ…a city where he had never been before, and where he knew nobody. He didnÂ’t use his college education as a resume, nor any family or other contacts.
3. The first night he finds the Crisis Ministries homeless shelter, and, next morning, begins working odd jobs. Within a few weeks, he gets a regular job with a moving company. He moonlights on weekends to make extra money.
4. He makes friends and contacts, and these help him to find jobs and housingÂ…Within five months, he gets a raise from the moving company to $10/ hour. And another, to $11/hour in less than nine months.
5. Progress was retarded by breaking his foot on the job, yet by three months he was able to move out of the homeless shelter and rent a room in a large house in an upscale part of town. (It was owned by a friend he met while working a second job on weekends.) Then, just a month later, he moved into a two-bedroom duplex with the cousin of one of his co-workers. It was a bit rundown, so the two of them spent a week-end making it like new. (His share was $325 because he took the master bedroom.)
6. After just ten months he was living in his own furnished apartment, with his own car, and he had $5,300 in savings.
a. The book also tells of other low-income people he met, and how they, also, would like a safety net second to their own work,
"Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream" [Paperback]
Adam W. Shepard (Author)
