Working poor are bad people?????
By Mommy_Money
@Mommy_Money (74)
United States
December 2, 2007 9:37am CST
About 3 years ago my family and I went with some of our church friends to a homeless shelter to help feed it's residents for Thanksgiving day. When we arrived we found it was a homeless shelter for families. For years I had an image in my head of homeless people being drunks and drug addicts. The image in my head was that of homeless men who had given up on life and turned to the street because they had either lost their minds of just didn't care any more about life. Well, let me tell you, going to that shelter painted a whole different picture for me. The truth is that we have more homeless families now. Not only are there many homeless families, most of those families are working families. Just about every family we met in the shelter had a working mother and a working father. The kids went to school in the morning and both parents went to work. These were not people who were dependent of food stamps, public assistance or any other kind of hand outs all their lives. These were people who were accustomed to going to work everyday. One of the couples I talked to had had some unforseen health expenses and had to choose between rent and medicine. They didn't do that very often but, once you get behind it is very difficult to catch up. I think it is really sad that in a country with so much wealth, we have such horrible treatment for our working class. It is as if we are going back to having peasants. Poor people will just provide services for the rich while living in some of the worst conditions in order to have food for their children. How long do you think before the people revolt? It's as if we choose to treat poor people like they are bad people. There is nothing wrong with being low income. If you are working for your family and not living off of the government what is the problem? Not everyone aspires to be rich but, we treat these people like they are bad. How do we get a change of heart?
5 people like this
7 responses
@desertdarlene (8910)
• United States
2 Dec 07
I agree with you, but (and I'm not trying to be confrontational) I wonder what makes you (or other people) say that these people were "bad"? I never thought anyone in a shelter or receiving assistance as bad people, just people who have problems and need help. I'm just curious as to this point of view.
Where I live housing is so expensive and hard to get sometimes, that some people live in their car. The wages can be so low that it's impossible to find housing for a family. Many "homeless" people actually do work.
@Mommy_Money (74)
• United States
2 Dec 07
I don't think poor people are bad. I think our society treats poor people as if poor people are bad. I wonder where the view comes from too.
1 person likes this
@rsa101 (37952)
• Philippines
13 Dec 07
That is a great realization you have experienced with your outreach. This is really a very harsh reality to consider that is why people like you are the ones initiate this kind of things towards them. The government can at some point make some effort but with the help of people things could be made even better. You've made a good start maybe if you could reach out to more people your efforts might not go to waste.
@ctrymuziklvr (11057)
• United States
3 Dec 07
People need to realize that shelters are not filled with criminals and the real criminals are in government offices. If prices and taxes weren't so high I'm sure there would be no need for shelters. Maybe if more people volunteered to help out in a shelter they would see the type of people who need them. I lived in a shelter for 6 months and met some very nice people and not one of them was a criminal.
@newzealtralian (3930)
• Australia
3 Dec 07
Our ecomomies really do seem to be going backwards. Here in Australia, if you live in a caravan park and have a family, you are considered to be homeless. Actually, for many years, my partner and i were homeless, that is, we didn't have a dwelling with our own bathroom or more than one bedroom. We thought that we had a home, but according to the authorities, we were homeless. Also, most people who live in financially assisted accommodation here (not government housing though) are considered to be homeless.
@chrislotz (8137)
• Canada
6 Dec 07
I never thought that these people were ever bad people or that they made bad choices in their lives. Yes, there are some that could change their lives and don't have to be on the streets. But there are a lot of people that just can't seem to get a break. There are a lot of people that don't have a very good education to be able o get a decent paying job so they can have a home. A lot of these people are women with kids. What I don't understand, though, is where is our welfare system. Why aren't these people getting assistance to help them.
@prxch_18 (143)
• India
3 Dec 07
I think people like you are very less in every country. Its almost the same way poors are treated in every country.The discussion that you have started is good but i didn't know did you really mean everything you said, do you really care about them?I don't want to answer this question because you should be the one who should know answers to these,not me.And about the revolt then i don't think this gonna happen, the simplest reason behind this is your discussion.It didn't get more response, even if mylot has around 1 lakh users.But still i have always tried to help poors, tried to support them i would continue to do it.I wish you too keep the same passion alive in your heart.Keep posting these type of discussion and i will answer all...
@olivia_2007 (51)
• China
3 Dec 07
in my opinion,the poor people are not the bad people.other people do not treat them as bad people,but they look down the poor people.it is usual there are the rich and the poor.what we can do is to respect each other.
