I taught at an inner city school in Dallas for 5 years in the 90s, where the majority of the children attending were labeled “below poverty level”. It never ceased to amaze me that the “poor” kids ‘couldn’t afford’ things like pencils, notebook paper, a dollar for field trips—YET they would come to school in Michael Jordan sneakers, wearing NFL jackets with the Oakland Raiders symbol on them (lots of gang kids at this school), brand new blue jeans that even I couldn’t afford on my teacher’s salary (started at $22,000 a year in 1992, woot!), and ALWAYS had $5 up to $20 bills to buy themselves dessert after getting their free lunches!!! Boggled my mind!!
True that! I substitute taught in Detroit a long time ago and the "poverty kids" had some great clothes. They always had money for chips, pop, cigarettes, drugs, cable TV, video games, cars ... yet they were poor.
Read thorstein veblen and your mind will be less boggled.
Poverty means:
A)Very short time horizons.
B)Money spent on outward appearances of “wealth.”
Among other things, these are some of the pathologies of poverty. Those expensive sneakers or jackets may be the best things a poor kid owns. They are not viewed as “extras” that go along with a nice place to live or a long term financial plan, though that is what they may signal.
LOL—In Philly a year or two ago, the news showed a story in August, just before school began, about some private charity that provided basic school supplies (pencils, paper, notebooks, bookbags, etc) to “needy” kids.
They interviewed one of the dads (!) who took their kids there. He was saying how grateful he was to the charity.
This guy had an expensive FUBU shirt on,fancy watch, and earrings in both ears. I’m guessing he could have afforded a box of pencils.....
I live in a rural town outside of Austin. One of the local churches used to give away ‘baskets’ of food items for Thanksgiving and Christmas. As a member of the Kiwanis Club at the time, I would often go down and help. When the ‘needy’ folks came in to pick up their food, the main church lady (mean ol’ bat but with a touch of common sense)would ask them if they had cable, or a cell phone, and to the ones who said yes she would say “If you can afford cable television, you can afford food” and send them on their way empty handed.
About 5 years back, I went into the home of a welfare family, and noticed that their color TV was bigger and better than mine.
Many "officially poor" people are making money off the books, whether through under-the-table employment or criminal activities.
Apprentice drug dealers....