Poverty Sucks & Getting Out of It Sucks Less Now Than It Used To
It’s becoming my savior in some weird masochistic way.
Oh, what a time to be alive. Depressed, anxious, fearful and all other manners of unsavory human emotions abound as we simultaneously combat and reconcile a pandemic, severe economic recession, destructive climate change, and sociopolitical upheaval centuries in the making. No big deal.
I was thinking just this morning that even my sunny days are tinged with the spice of “new normal” as I put on my mask and head to work — ready and already dreading the wave of people I’d come across throughout my 10-hour workday.
Full time in a pandemic is a strange thing. I’m pretty grateful to be experiencing it, to be totally honest.
To have a job right now is a blessing. I am cautious, weary, of contracting COVID (thankfully, I’ve been free from its grasp thus far). I have some level of sensible optimism for the improvements being made in my little corner of the planet and things are getting marginally better.
This only highlights the fact that for all these conflicting feelings about what should be happening and what isn’t, I go home at the end of my day with a stable job that provides a living wage.
So what’s the problem?
Well, the last few months were the roughest I’ve gone through since I lived out of the back of my Ford Explorer. For multiple reasons:
- I was working just as many hours as I was pre-COVID, except we received less business so my take-home pay was 2/3 the amount from the previous year.
- I live in Seattle, which is one of the most expensive cities to live in if you’re in the United States, and the cost of transportation is not something to ignore. Lyfts from my apartment to work were $15-$17 per ride at the time of re-opening. Public transport is notoriously unreliable. I can’t afford a car with my current debt-to-income ratio. That means I was paying roughly $30/day just to get to and from work. That’s already two hours of my daily pay gone — going just to transportation.
- Since I was working full time again, I was ineligible for the unemployment boost of $800 per week. For many others, it was suddenly a better financial move to not return to work because you’d get paid more. Combine this situation with measly paychecks and you’ll get the sudden inability of not being able to make bills on time!
- I love my job. I am personally invested in my workplace. We are a local small business in Seattle. Throughout the city, small business graveyards are popping up left and right. The lots and leases are being bought out by larger corporations daily. The landscape of my city is changing. I did not want my workplace to be one of them. That meant that I took the L of more work for less pay, for better or for worse.
So what does this have to do with poverty?
WELL. Poverty costs are the most expensive in hyper-urban areas like Seattle city proper. Just look at our homeless population. Look at the cost of education. Look at the annual income of public teachers and officials and compare it to costs of living.
It should be well known that it costs more money to be impoverished than it does for the upper echelons of society. In fact, 1 in every 9 people in Seattle lives below the poverty line.
Reading articles on Medium has led me to believe that many of us talented and driven writers are actually in the same boat. Making it by on the least amount of bills we can, iteratively budgeting so we don’t feel like we’re living paycheck to paycheck even though we are.
The last few months have also led me to believe that everyone I’ve come across is trying their best to stay out of poverty.
Honestly, if you’re trying to stay out of poverty it’s clear you’re already impoverished.
Would you believe me if I said that was okay? Poverty sucks. It sucks hard.
I see you. You work too hard and still think you could be working harder. Maybe it’s good to pick up that second job right now. Maybe it’ll be good for you to start freelancing on the side. It’s not like you have anything else to do while your county is re-opening, right?
In my opinion, why the fuck not? Just go for it. If you’re already there, what do you have to lose?
Pain is inevitable, but suffering is a choice. I think that’s a Buddha quote I heard a long time ago but don’t @ me. I’m just another human doing the best they can in the shitty consequence land of 2021.
I’m still living in poverty. Every cent I earn has a purpose, even if I’m just me and I don’t know what that purpose is yet because I’m not Warren Buffett.
Aren’t you tired of hearing how you could be successful if you did x, y, and z? Articles that talk about earning and making money are starting to sicken me. We’re in a pandemic. Our economy is trash and will recover in its own time but not right this second.
This is the time for us to take advantage of the fact that when you’re at rock bottom, the only way to go is up. Stop thinking that having an impoverished bank account means it’s okay to act like you’re impoverished. Your mindset motivates your actions.
Today I’m focusing on the little things I can do with my time, money, and energy that compound. Instead of buying something for $5 every day, I’d rather wait and save and spend on the thing that will make me $5.
I’ll be doing the same thing tomorrow and the next day and the next day, every day until I can loosen the noose around my neck myself.
